A  SHORT  HISTORY 


THE  BOOK  OF 

COMMON  PRAYER 


TOGETHER  WITH 


CERTAIN     PAPERS    ILLUSTRATIVE    OF 
LITURGICAL  REVISION     1878-1892 


BY 


WILLIAM   REED   HUNTINGTON  D.  D.  D.  C.  L. 
it 

Hector  of  Grace  Church  New  York 


NEW  YORK 
THOMAS  WHITTAKER 

2  and  3  Bible  House 


0X  6-9/6" 


Copyright,  1893, 

by 

THOMAS  WHITTAKER, 


THE  MKB8HOK  COMPANY  PKESS, 
1BAHWAT,  N.  J. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I.  A  Short  History  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  : 

I.  Origins, 3 

II.  Vicissitudes, 20 

II.  Revision  of  the  American  Common  Prayer,  .      61 

III.  The  Book  Annexed  :  Its  Critics  and  its  Prospects,    133 
Appendix  : 

I.  Permanent  and  Variable  Characteristics  of 
the  Prayer  Book— A  Sermon  Before  Revi- 
sion, 1878 213 

II.  The  Outcome  of  Revision,  1892,      .        .        .228 
III.  Tabular  View  of  Additions  Made  at    the 

Successive  Revisions,  1552-1892,      .        .       235 


iii 

M117771 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


The  opening  paper  of  this  collection  was  originally 
read  as  a  lecture  before  a  liturgical  class,  and  is  now 
published  for  the  first  time.  The  others  have  appeared 
in  print  from  time  to  time  during  the  movement  for 
revision.  If  they  have  any  permanent  value,  it  is 
because  of  their  showing,  so  far  as  the  writer's  part  in 
the  matter  is  concerned,  what  things  were  attempted 
and  what  things  failed  of  accomplishment.  Should  they 
serve  as  contributory  to  some  future  narrative  of  the 
revision,  the  object  of  their  publication  will  have  been 
accomplished.  So  much  has  been  said  as  to  the  poverty 
of  our  gains  on  the  side  of  "  enrichment,"  as  compared 
with  what  has  been  secured  in  the  line  of  "  flexibility," 
that  it  has  seemed  proper  to  append  to  the  volume  a 
Comparative  Table  detailing  the  additions  of  liturgi- 
cal matter  made  to  the  Common  Prayer  at  the  succes- 
sive revisions.  W.  R.  H. 

New  York,  Christmas,  1892. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  THE  BOOK  OF 
COMMON  PRAYER. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  THE  BOOK  OF 
COMMON  PRAYER. 


ORIGINS. 


Liturgical  worship,  understood  in  the  largest  sense 
the  phrase  can  bear,  means  divine  service  rendered  in 
accordance  with  an  established  form.  Of  late  years 
there  has  been  an  attempt  made  among  purists  to  con- 
fine the  word  "  liturgy  "  to  the  office  entitled  in  the 
Prayer  Book,  Tlie  Order  for  the  Administration  of  the 
Lord^s  Supper  or  Holy  Communion. 

This  restricted  and  specialized  interpretation  of  a  fa- 
miliar word  may  serve  the  purposes  of  technical  scholar- 
ship, for  undoubtedly  there  is  much  to  be  said  in  favor 
of  the  narrowed  signification  as  we  shall  see  ;  but  unless 
English  literature  can  be  rewritten,  plain  people  who 
draw  their  vocabulary  from  standard  authors  will  go  on 
calling  service-books  "  liturgies  "  regardless  of  the  fact 
that  they  contain  many  things  other  than  that  one  office 
which  is  entitled  to  be  named  by  eminence  the  Liturgy. 
"  This  Convention,"  write  the  fathers  of  the  American 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  Ratification  printed  on  the 
fourth  page  of  the  Prayer  Book,  "  having  in  their  pres- 
ent session  set  forth  a  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and 
other  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  do  hereby  es- 


4  A    SHORT    HISTORY    OF 

tablish  the  said  book  ;  and  they  declare  it  to  be  the 
Liturgy  of  this  Church." 

For  the  origin  of  liturgy  thus  broadly  defined  we  have 
to  go  a  long  way  back  ;  beyond  the  Prayer  Book,  be- 
yond the  Mass-book,  beyond  the  ancient  Sacramentaries, 
yes,  beyond  the  synagogue  worship,  beyond  the  temple 
worship,  beyond  the  tabernacle  worship;  in  fact  I  am  dis- 
posed to  think  that,  logically,  we  should  be  unable  to  stop 
short  until  we  had  reached  the  very  heart  of  man  itself, 
that  dimly  discerned  groundwork  we  call  human  nature, 
and  had  discovered  there  those  two  instincts,  the  one  of 
worship  and  the  other  of  gregariousness,  from  whence  all 
forms  of  common  prayer  have  sprung.  Where  three  or 
two  assemble  for  the  purposes  of  supplication,  some  form 
must  necessarily  be  accepted  if  they  are  to  pray  in 
unison.  When  the  disciples  came  to  Jesus  begging  him 
that  he  would  teach  them  how  to  pray,  he  gave  them, 
not  twelve  several  forms,  though  doubtless  James's 
special  needs  differed  from  John's  and  Simon's  from 
Jude's — he  gave  them,  not  twelve,  but  one.  "  When  ye 
pray,"  was  his  answer,  "  say  Our  Father."  That  was 
the  beginning  of  Christian  Common  Prayer.  Because 
we  are  men  we  worship,  because  we  are  fellow-men  our 
worship  must  have  form. 

But  waiving  this  last  analysis  of  all  which  carries 
us  across  the  whole  field  of  history  at  a  leap,  it  becomes 
necessary  to  seek  for  liturgical  beginnings  by  a  more 
plodding  process. 

If  we  take  that  manual  of  worship  with  which  as 
English-speaking  Christians  we  are  ourselves  the  most 
familiar,  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  allow  it  to  fall 
naturally  apart,  as  a  bunch  of  flowers  would  do  if  the 


THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER.  5 

string  were  cut,  we  discover  that  in  point  of  fact  we 
have,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Bible,  many  books  in  one. 
We  have  scarcely  turned  the  title-page,  for  instance, 
before  we  come  upon  a  ritual  of  daily  worship,  an  order 
for  Morning  Prayer  and  an  order  for  Evening  Prayer, 
consisting  in  the  main  of  Psalms,  Scripture  Lessons, 
Antiphonal  Versicles,  and  Collects.  Appended  to  this  we 
find  a  Litany  or  General  Supplication  and  a  collection 
of  special  prayers. 

Mark  an  interval  here,  and  note  that  we  have  com- 
pleted the  first  volume  of  our  liturgical  library.  Next, 
we  have  a  sacramental  ritual,  entitled,  The  Order  for 
the  Administration  of  the  Lord's  &upper  or  Holy  Com- 
munion, ingeniously  interwoven  by  a  system  of  appro- 
priate prayers  and  New  Testament  readings  with  the 
Sundays  and  holydays  of  the  year.  This  gives  us  our 
second  volume.  Then  follow  numerous  offices  which  we 
shall  find  it  convenient  to  classify  under  two  heads, 
namely  :  those  which  may  be  said  by  a  bishop  or  by  a 
presbyter,  and  those  that  may  be  said  by  a  bishop  only. 
Under  the  former  head  come  the  baptismal  offices,  the 
Order  for  the  Burial  of  the  Dead,  and  the  like  ;  under 
the  latter,  the  services  of  Ordination  and  Confirmation 
and  the  Form  of  Consecration  of  a  Church  or  Chapel. 

In  the  Church  of  England  as  it  existed  before  the 
Reformation,  these  four  volumes,  as  I  have  called  them, 
were  distinct  and  recognized  realities.  Each  had  its  title 
and  each  its  separate  use.  The  name  of  the  book  of  daily 
services  was  The  Breviary.  The  name  of  the  book  used 
in  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Communion  was  The  Missal. 
The  name  of  the  book  of  Special  Offices  was  The  Ritual. 
The  name  of  the  book  of  such  offices  as  could  be  used 


6  A   SHORT   HISTORY    OP 

by  a  bishop  only  was  The  Pontifical.  It  was  one  of  the 
greatest  of  the  achievements  of  the  English  reformers 
that  they  succeeded  in  condensing,  after  a  practical 
fashion,  these  four  books,  or,  to  speak  more  accurately, 
the  first  three  of  them,  Breviary,  Missal,  and  Ritual,  into 
one.  The  Pontifical, or  Ordinal, they  continued  as  a  sep- 
arate book,  although  it  soon  for  the  sake  of  convenience 
became  customary  in  England,  as  it  has  always  been 
customary  here,  for  Prayer  Book  and  Ordinal  to  be 
stitched  together  by  the  binders  into  a  single  volume. 
Popularly  speaking  the  Prayer  Book  is  the  entire  volume 
one  purchases  under  that  name  from  the  bookseller,  but 
accurately  speaking  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  ends 
where  TJie  Form  and  Manner  of  Making,  Ordaining, 
and  Consecrating  Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons  begins. 
"  Finis"  should  be  written  after  the  Psalter,  as  indeed 
from  the  Prayer  Book's  Table  of  Contents  plainly  appears. 

Setting  aside  now,  for  the  present,  that  portion  of  the 
formularies  which  corresponds  to  the  Ritual  and  Pon- 
tifical of  the  mediaeval  Church,  I  proceed  to  speak  rap- 
idly of  the  antecedents  of  Breviary  and  Missal.  Whence 
came  they  ?  And  how  are  we  to  account  for  their  being 
sundered  so  distinctly  as  they  are  ? 

They  came,  so  some  of  the  most  thoughtful  of  litur- 
gical students  are  agreed,  from  a  source  no  less  remote 
than  the  Temple  of  Solomon,  and  they  are  severed,  to 
speak  figuratively,  by  a  valley  not  unlike  that  which  in 
our  thoughts  divides  the  Mount  of  Beatitudes  from  the 
Hill  of  Calvary. 

In  that  memorable  building  to  which  reference  was 
just  made,  influential  over  the  destinies  of  our  race  as 
no  other  house  of  man's  making  ever  was,  there  went 


THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER.  7 

on  from  day  to  day  these  two  things,  psalmody  and 
sacrifice.  Peace-offering,  burnt-offering,  sin-offering, 
the  morning  oblation,  and  the  evening  oblation — these 
with  other  ceremonies  of  a  like  character  went  to  make 
what  we  know  as  the  sacrificial  ritual  of  the  temple. 

But  this  was  not  all.  It  would  appear  that  there  were 
other  services  in  the  temple  over  and  above  those  that 
could  strictly  be  called  sacrificial.  The  Hebrew  Psalter, 
the  hymn-book  of  that  early  day,  contains  much  that 
was  evidently  intended  by  the  writers  for  temple  use, 
and  even  more  that  could  be  easily  adapted  to  such  use. 
And  although  there  is  no  direct  evidence  that  in  Solo- 
mon's time  forms  of  prayer  other  than  those  associated 
with  sacrificial  rites  were  in  use,  yet  when  we  find  men- 
tion in  the  New  Testament  of  people  going  up  to  the 
temple  of  those  later  days  "  at  the  hour  of  prayer,"  it 
seems  reasonable  to  infer  that  the  custom  was  an  ancient 
one,  and  that  from  the  beginning  of  the  temple's  history 
forms  of  worship  not  strictly  speaking  sacrificial  had 
been  a  stated  feature  of  the  ritual.  But  whether  in  the 
temple  or  not,  certainly  in  the  synagogues,  which  after 
the  return  from  the  captivity  sprang  up  all  over  the 
Jewish  world,  services  composed  of  prayers,  of  psalms, 
and  of  readings  from  the  law  and  the  prophets  were  of 
continual  occurrence.  Therefore  we  may  safely  say 
that  with  these  two  forms  of  divine  service,  the  sacrifi- 
cial and  the  simply  devotional  and  didactic,  the  apostles, 
the  founders  of  the  Christian  Church,  had  been  familiar 
from  their  childhood.  They  were  at  home  in  both 
synagogue  and  temple.  They  knew  by  sight  the  ritual 
of  the  altar,  and  by  ear  the  ritual  of  the  choir.  They 
were  accustomed  to  the  spectacle  of  the  priest  offering  the 


A    SHORT    HISTORY    OF 


victim  ;  they  were  used  to  hearing  the  singers  chant  the 
psalms. 

We  see  thus  why  it  is  that  the  public  worship  of  the 
Church  should  have  come  down  to  us  in  two  great  lines, 
why  there  should  be  a  tradition  of  eucharistic  worship 
and,  parallel  to  this,  a  tradition  of  daily  prayer  ;  for  as 
the  one  usage  links  itself,  in  a  sense,  to  the  sacrificial 
system  of  God's  ancient  people  and  has  in  it  a  sugges- 
tion of  the  temple  worship,  so  the  other  seems  to  show  a 
continuity  with  what  went  on  in  those  less  pretentious 
sanctuaries  which  had  place  in  all  the  cities  and  villages 
of  Judea,  and  indeed  wherever,  throughout  the  Roman 
world,  Jewish  colonists  were  to  be  found.  The  earliest 
Christian  disciples  having  been  themselves  Hebrews, 
nothing  could  have  been  more  natural  than  their  mould- 
ing the  worship  of  the  new  Church  in  general  accord- 
ance with  the  models  that  had  stood  before  their  eyes 
from  childhood  in  the  old.  The  Psalms  were  sung  in  the 
synagogues  according  to  a  settled  principle.  We  can- 
not wonder,  then,  that  the  Psalter  should  have  continued 
to  be  what  in  fact  it  had  always  been,  the  hymn-book  of 
the  Church.  Moreover,  they  had  in  the  synagogue 
besides  their  psalmody  a  system  of  Bible  readings,  con- 
fined, of  course,  to  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures.  This 
is  noted  in  the  observation  that  fell  from  Simon  Peter, 
at  the  first  Council  of  the  Church,  "  Moses  of  old  time 
hath  in  every  city  them  that  preach  him,  being  read  in 
the  synagogue  every  Sabbath  day."  Scripture  lessons, 
therefore,  would  be  no  novelty. 

We  gather  also  from  the  New  Testament,  not  to 
speak  of  other  authorities,  that  in  the  apostolic  days 
people  were  familiar  with  what  were  known  as  "  hours 


THE    BOOK    OF    COMMON    PRAYER.  9 

of  prayer."  There  were  particular  times  in  the  day, 
that  is  to  say,  which  were  held  to  be  especially  ap- 
propriate for  worship.  "  Peter  and  John  went  up  to- 
gether into  the  temple  at  the  hour  of  prayer,  being  the 
ninth  hour."  Again,  at  Joppa,  we  find  the  former  of 
these  two  apostles  going  up  upon  the  house-top  to  pray 
at  "  the  sixth  hour."  Long  before  this  David  had  men- 
tioned morning  and  evening  and  noon  as  fitting  hours 
of  prayer,  and  one  psalmist,  in  his  enthusiasm,  had  even 
gone  so  far  as  to  declare  seven  times  a  day  to  be  not  too 
often  for  giving  God  thanks.  There  was  also  the  prec- 
edent of  Daniel  opening  his  windows  toward  Jeru- 
salem three  times  a  day.  As  the  love  for  order  and 
system  grew  year  by  year  stronger  in  the  Christian 
Church,  the  laws  that  govern  ritual  would  be  likely  to 
become  more  stringent,  and  so  very  probably  it  came  to 
pass.  For  aught  we  know  to  the  contrary,  the  observ- 
ance of  fixed  hours  of  prayer  was  a  matter  of  voluntary 
action  with- the  Christians  of  the  first  age.  There  was, 
as  we  say,  no  "  shall "  about  it.  But  when  the 
founders  of  the  monastic  orders  came  upon  the  scene  a 
fixed  rule  took  the  place  of  simple  custom,  and  what 
had  been  optional  became  mandatory.  By  the  time  we 
reach  the  mediaeval  period  evolution  has  had  its  perfect 
work,  and  we  find  in  existence  a  scheme  of  daily  ser- 
vice curiously  and  painfully  elaborate.  The  mediaeval 
theologians  were  very  fond  of  classifying  things  by 
sevens.  In  the  symbolism  of  Holy  Scripture  seven  ap- 
pears as  the  number  of  perfection,  it  being  the  aggre- 
gate of  three,  the  number  of  Deity,  and  four,  the  number 
of  the  earth.  Accordingly  we  find  in  the  theology  of 
those  times  seven  sacraments,  seven  deadly  sins,  seven 


10  A    SHORT    HISTORY    OF 

contrary  virtues,  seven  works  of  mercy,  and  also  seven 
hours  of  prayer.  These  seven  hours  were  known  as 
Matins,  Prime,  Tierce,  Sext,  Nones,  Vespers,  and  Com- 
plene.  The  theory  of  the  hours  of  prayer  was  that  at 
each  one  of  them  a  special  office  of  devotion  was  to  be 
said.  Beginning  before  sunrise  with  matins  there  was 
to  be  daily  a  round  of  services  at  stated  intervals  cul- 
minating at  bedtime  in  that  which,  as  its  name  indi- 
cated, filled  out  the  series,  Complene.  To  what  extent 
this  ideal  scheme  of  devotion  was  ever  carried  out  in 
practice  it  is  difficult  positively  to  say. 

Probably  in  the  monastic  and  conventual  life  of  the 
severer  orders  there  was  an  approximation  to  a  punctual 
observance  of  the  hours  as  they  successively  arrived. 
Possibly  the  modern  mind  fails  to  do  full  justice  to  the 
conception  of  worship  on  which  this  system  was  based. 
Those  principles  of  devotion  of  which  the  rosary  is  the 
visible  symbol  do  not  easily  commend  themselves  to  us. 
They  have  about  them  a  suggestion  of  mechanism. 
They  remind  us  of  the  Buddhist  praying  wheel,  and 
seem  to  put  the  Church  in  the  attitude  of  expecting  to 
be  heard  for  her  "  much  speaking." 

Doubtless  many  a  pure,  courageous  spirit  fought  the 
good  fight  of  faith  successfully  in  spite  of  all  this  weight 
of  outward  observances ;  but  in  the  judgment  of  the 
wiser  heads  among  English  churchmen,  the  time  had 
come,  by  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  this 
complicated  armor  must  either  be  greatly  lightened  or 
else  run  the  risk  of  being  cast  aside  altogether.  Let 
Cranmer  tell  his  own  story.  This  is  what  he  says  in 
the  Preface  to  the  First  Book  of  Edward  VI.  as  to  the 
ritual  grievances  of  the  times.     The  passage  is  worth 


THE    BOOK    OF    COMMON    PRAYER.  11 

listening  to  if  only  for  the  quaintness  of  its  strong  and 
wholesome  English  : 

"  There  was  never  anything  by  the  wit  of  man  so  well 
devised  or  so  surely  established  which,  in  continuance 
of  time,  hath  not  been  corrupted,  as,  among  other  things, 
it  may  plainly  appear  by  the  common  prayer,  in  the 
Church,  commonly  called  divine  service.  The  first 
original  and  ground  whereof,  if  a  man  would  search 
out  by  the  ancient  fathers,  he  shall  find  that  the 
same  was  not  ordained  but  of  a  good  purpose,  and 
for  a  great  advancement  of  godliness,  for  they  so 
ordered  the  matter  that  all  the  whole  Bible,  or  the 
greatest  part  thereof,  should  be  read  over  once  in  the 
year.  .  .  But  these  many  years  past  this  godly  and  de- 
cent order  of  the  ancient  fathers  hath  been  so  altered, 
broken,  and  neglected  by  planting  in  uncertain  stories, 
legends,  responds,  verses,  vain  repetitions,  commemora- 
tions, and  synodals  that  commonly,  when  any  book  of 
the  Bible  was  begun,  before  three  or  four  chapters  were 
read  out  all  the  rest  were  unread.  And  in  this  sort  the 
Book  of  Esaie  was  begun  in  Advent,  and  the  Book  of 
Genesis  in  Septuagesima,  but  they  were  only  begun  and 
never  read  through.  .  .  And  moreover,  whereas  St. 
Paul  would  have  such  language  spoken  to  the  people  in 
the  Church  as  they  might  understand  and  have  profit 
by  hearing  the  same,  the  service  in  this  Church  of  Eng- 
land (these  many  years)  hath  been  read  in  Latin  to  the 
people,  which  they  understood  not,  so  that  they  have 
heard  with  their  ears  only,  and  their  hearts,  spirit,  and 
mind  have  not  been  edified  thereby.  .  .  Moreover,  the 
number  and  hardness  of  the  rules  called  the  Pie,  and 
the   manifold  changings  of   the  service  was  the  cause 


12  A   SHORT    HISTORY    OF 

that  to  turn  the  Book  only  was  so  hard  and  intricate  a 
matter  that  many  times  there  was  more  business  to  find 
out  what  should  be  read  than  it  was  to  read  it  when 
it  was  found  out.  These  inconveniences  therefore  con- 
sidered, here  is  set  forth  such  an  order  whereby  the  same 
shall  be  redressed." 

As  an  illustration  of  what  Cranmer  meant  by  his 
curious  phrase, "  planting  in  uncertain  stories,"  take  the 
following  Lessons  quoted  by  Dr.  Neale  in  his  Essays  on 
Liturgiology : 

"Besides  the  commemoration  of  saints,"  writes  this 
distinguished  antiquarian,  "there  are  in  certain  local 
calenders  notices  of  national  events  connected  with  the 
well-being  of  the  Church.  Thus,  in  the  Parisian 
Breviary,  we  have  on  the  eighteenth  of  August  a  com- 
memoration of  the  victory  of  Philip  the  Fair  in 
Flanders,  a.  d.  1304."  Here  is  the  fourth  of  the  ap- 
pointed lessons  :  "  Philip  the  Fair,  King  of  the  French, 
in  the  year  1304,  about  the  feast  of  St.  Mary  Magdalene, 
having  set  forth  with  his  brothers  Charles  and  Louis  and 
a  large  army  into  Flanders,  pitched  his  tent  near  Mons, 
where  was  a  camp  of  the  rebel  Flemings.  But  when,  on 
the  eighteenth  of  August,  which  was  the  Tuesday  after 
the  Assumption  of  St.  Mary,  the  French  had  from  morn- 
ing till  evening  stood  on  the  defence,  and  were  resting 
themselves  at  nightfall,  the  enemy,  by  a  sudden  attack, 
rushed  on  the  camp  with  such  fury  that  the  body-guard 
had  scarce  time  to  defend  him. 

"Response.  Come  from  Lebanon,  my  spouse  ;  come, 
and  thou  shalt  be  crowned,  The  odor  of  thy  sweet  oint- 
ments is  above  all  perfumes.  Versicle.  The  righteous 
judge  shall  give  a  crown  of  righteousness." 


THE    BOOK    OF    COMMON   PEAYEE.  13 

Then,  after  this  short  interlude  of  snatches  from  Holy 
Scripture,  there  follows  the  Fifth  Lesson  :  "At  the 
beginning  of  the  fight  the  life  of  the  king  was  in  great 
danger,  but  shortly  after,  his  troops  crowding  together 
from  all  quarters  to  his  tent,  where  the  battle  was 
sharpest,  obtained  an  illustrious  victory  over  the 
enemy  " — and  more  of  this  sort  until  all  of  a  sudden  we 
come  upon  the  Song  of  Solomon  again.  "  V.  Thou  art 
all  fair,  my  love  ;  come  from  Lebanon.  M.  They  that 
have  not  defiled  their  garments,  they  shall  walk  with  me 
in  white,  for  they  are  worthy." 

Is  not  Cranmer's  contemptuous  mention  of  these  un- 
certain legends  and  vain  repetitions  amply  justified  ? 
And  can  we  be  too  thankful  to  the  sturdy  champions  of 
the  Reformation,  who  in  the  face  of  no  little  opposition 
and  by  efforts  scarcely  appreciated  to-day,  cut  us  loose 
from  all  responsibility  for  such  solemn  nonsense  ? 

There  are  some  who  feel  aggrieved  that  chapters  from 
the  Apocrypha  should  have  found  admission  to  our  new 
lectionary,  and  there  are  even  those  who  think  that  of 
the  canonical  Scriptures,  passages  more  edifying  than 
certain  of  those  appointed  to  be  read  might  have  been 
chosen,  but  what  would  they  think  if  they  were  com- 
pelled to  hear  the  minister  at  the  lecturn  say  :  "  Here 
beginneth  the  first  chapter  of  the  Adventures  of  Philip 
the  Fair"? 

But  the  reformers,  happily,  were  not  discouraged  by 
the  portentous  front  of  wood,  hay,  and  stubble  which  the 
liturgical  edifice  of  their  day  presented  to  the  eye. 
They  felt  convinced  that  there  were  also  to  be  found 
mixed  in  with  the  building  material  gold,  silver,  and 
precious  stones,  and  for  these  they  determined  to  make 


14  A   SHOET   HISTORY    OF 

diligent  search,  resolved  most  of  all  that  the  foundation 
laid  should  be  Jesus  Christ.  This  system  of  canonical 
hours,  they  argued,  this  seven-fold  office  of  daily  prayer 
is  all  very  beautiful  in  theory,  but  it  never  can  be  made 
what  in  fact  it  never  in  the  past  has  been,  a  practicable 
thing.  Let  us  be  content  if  we  can  do  so  much  as  win 
people  to  their  devotions  at  morning  and  at  night. 
With  this  object  in  view  Cranmer  and  his  associates 
subjected  the  services  of  the  hours  to  a  process  of  com- 
bination and  condensation.  The  Offices  for  the  first 
three  hours  they  compressed  into  An  Order  for  Daily 
Morning  Prayer,  or,  as  it  was  called  in  Edward's  first 
Book,  An  Order  for  Matins,  and  the  Offices  for  the 
last  two  hours,  namely,  Vespers  and  Complene,  they 
made  over  into  An  Order  for  Daily  Evening  Prayer, 
or,  as  it  was  named  in  Edward's  first  Book,  An  Order 
for  Evensong. 

These  two  formularies,  the  Order  for  Matins  and 
the  Order  for  Evensong,  make  the  core  and  substance 
of  our  present  daily  offices.  But  the  tradition  of  daily 
prayer  is  only  one  of  the  two  great  devotional  heritages 
of  the  Church.  With  the  destruction  of  the  temple 
by  the  Roman  soldiery,  the  sacrificial  ritual  of  the 
Jewish  Church  came  to  a  sudden  end  ;  but  it  was  not 
God's  purpose  that  the  memory  of  sacrifice  should  fade 
out  of  men's  minds  or  that  the  thought  of  sacrifice 
should  be  banished  from  the  field  of  worship.  Years 
before  the  day  when  the  legionaries  of  Titus  marched 
amid  flame  and  smoke,  into  the  falling  sanctuary 
of  an  out-worn  faith,  one  who  was  presently  to 
die  upon  a  cross  had  taken  bread,  had  blessed  it  and 
broken  it,  and  giving  it  to  certain  followers  gathered 


THE   BOOK   OF   COMMON   PRAYER.  15 

about  him,  had  said,  "  Take,  eat ;  this  is  my  body,  which 
is  given  for  you  :  this  do  in  remembrance  of  me."  Like- 
wise also  he  had  taken  the  cup  after  supper,  saying, 
"  This  cup  is  the  New  Testament  in  my  blood  which  is 
shed  for  you." 

Certainly  there  must  be  a  relation  of  cause  and  effect 
between  this  scene  and  the  fact,  which  is  a  fact,  that 
the  most  ancient  fragments  of  primitive  Christian  wor- 
ship now  discoverable  are  forms  for  the  due  commemo- 
ration of  the  sacrifice  of  the  death  of  Christ. 

These  venerable  monuments  seem  to  exclaim  as  we 
decipher  them  :  "Even  so,  Lord,  it  is  done  as  thou 
didst  say."  "  Thy  name,  O  Lord,  endureth  forever  and 
so  doth  thy  memorial  from  generation  to  generation." 
Of  the  references  to  Christian  worship  discoverable  in 
documents  later  than  the  New  Testament  Scriptures 
there  are  three  that  stand  out  with  peculiar  promi- 
nence, namely,  the  lately  discovered  Teaching  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles,  placed  by  some  authorities  as  early  as 
the  first  half  of  the  second  century;  the  famous  letter 
of  Pliny  to  the  Emperor  Trajan,  a  writing  of  the  same 
period  ;  and  the  Apology  or  Defence  addressed  by  Justin 
Martyr  to  Antoninus  Pius  about  the  year  140  after 
Christ.  The  noteworthy  fact  in  connection  with  these 
passages  is  that  of  the  three,  two  certainly,  and  probably 
the  third  also,  refer  directly  to  the  Holy  Communion. 
In  the  Teaching  we  have  a  distinct  sketch  of  a 
eucharistic  service  with  three  of  the  prescribed  prayers 
apparently  given  in  full.  In  Justin  Martyr's  account, 
the  evidence  of  a  definitely  established  liturgical  form 
is  perhaps  less  plain,  but  nothing  that  he  says  would 
appear  to   be   irreconcilable   with   the   existence   of   a 


16  A   SHORT   HISTORY    OF 

more  or  less  elastic  ritual  order.  Whether  he  does  or 
does  not  intend  to  describe  extemporaneous  prayer  as 
forming  one  feature  of  the  eucharistic  worship  of  the 
Christians  of  his  time  depends  upon  the  translation  we 
give  to  a  single  word  in  his  narrative.  Later  on  in  the 
life  of  the  Church,  though  by  just  how  much  later  is  a 
difficult  point  of  scholarship,  we  are  brought  in  contact 
with  a  number  of  formularies,  all  of  them  framed  for 
the  uses  of  eucharistical  worship,  all  of  them,  that  is  to 
say,  designed  to  perpetuate  the  commandment,  "This 
do  in  remembrance  of  me,"  and  all  of  them  preserving, 
no  matter  in  what  part  of  the  world  they  may  be  found, 
a  certain  structural  uniformity.  These  are  the  primi- 
tive liturgies,  as  they  are  called,  the  study  of  which  has 
in  late  years  attained  almost  to  the  dignity  of  a  science. 
As  to  the  exact  measure  of  antiquity  that  ought  to  be 
accorded  to  these  venerable  documents  the  authorities 
differ  and  probably  will  always  differ.  Dr.  Neale's  en- 
thusiasm carried  him  so  far  that  he  was  persuaded  and 
sought  to  persuade  others  of  the  existence  of  liturgical 
quotations  in  the  writings  of  St.  Paul.  This  hypothesis 
is  at  the  present  time  generally  rejected  by  sober-minded 
scholars.  Perhaps  "  the  personal  equation "  enters 
equally  into  the  conclusions  of  those  who  assign  a  very 
late  origin  to  the  liturgies,  pushing  them  along  as  far  as 
the  sixth  or  seventh  century.  If  one  happens  to  have 
a  rooted  dislike  for  prescribed  forms  of  worship,  and 
believes  them  in  his  heart  to  be  both  unscriptural  and 
unspiritual,  it  will  be  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world 
for  him  to  disparage  whatever  evidence  makes  in  favor 
of  the  early  origin  of  liturgies.  Hammond  is  sensible 
when  he  says  in  the  Preface  to  his  valuable  work  entitled 


THE    BOOK    OF   COMMON   PRAYER.  17 

Liturgies  Eastern  and  Western,  "I  have  assumed  an 
intermediate  position  between  the  views  of  those  on  the 
one  hand  who  hold  that  the  liturgies  had  assumed  a 
recognized  and  fixed  form  so  early  as  to  be  quoted  in  the 
Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  and  Hebrews  .  .  .  and  of 
those,  on  the  other,  who  because  there  are  some  palpable 
interpolations  and  marks  of  comparatively  late  date  in 
some  of  the  texts,  assert  broadly  that  they  are  all  untrust- 
worthy and  valueless  as  evidence.  This  view  I  venture 
to  think,"  he  adds,  "  equally  uncritical  and  groundless 
with  the  former." 

To  sum  up,  the  argument  in  behalf  of  an  apostolic 
origin  for  the  Christian  Liturgy  may  be  compactly 
stated  thus  :  The  very  earliest  monuments  of  Christian 
worship  that  Ave  possess  are  rituals  of  thanksgiving, 
having  direct  reference  to  the  sacrifice  of  the  death  of 
Christ.  Going  back  from  these  to  the  New  Testament 
we  find  there  the  narrative  of  the  institution  of  the  Holy 
Communion  by  Christ  himself,  and  in  connection  with 
it  the  command,  "  This  do  in  remembrance  of  me."  It 
is,  I  submit,  a  reasonable  inference  that  the  liturgies  in 
the  main  fairly  represent  what  it  was  in  the  mind  of  the 
apostle  to  recognize  and  establish  as  proper  Christian 
worship.  I  do  not  call  it  demonstration,  I  call  it  rea- 
sonable inference.  There  is  a  striking  parallelism  be- 
tween the  argument  for  liturgical  worship  and  the 
argument  for  episcopacy.  In  both  cases  we  take  the 
ground  that  continuity  existed  between  the  life  of  the 
Church  as  we  find  it  a  hundred  years  after  the  last  of 
the  apostles  had  gone  to  his  rest  and  the  life  of  the 
Church  as  it  is  pictured  in  the  New  Testament. 

That  there  were  many  changes    during  the  interval 


18  A   SHORT    HISTORY   OF 

must  no  doubt  be  granted,  but  we  say  that  if  those 
changes  were  serious  ones  affecting  great  principles  of 
belief  or  order,  those  who  maintain  that  such  a  hidden 
revolution  took  place  are  bound  to  bring  positive  evi- 
dence to  the  fact.  This  history  of  the  Church  during 
the  second  century  has  been  likened  with  more  of  inge- 
nuity than  of  poetical  beauty  to  the  passing  of  a  train 
through  a  railway  tunnel. 

We  see  the  train  enter,  we  see  it  emerge,  but  its 
movement  while  inside  the  tunnel  is  concealed  from  us. 
Similarly  we  may  say  that  we  see  with  comparative  dis- 
tinctness the  Christian  Church  of  the  Apostolic  Age,  and 
we  see  with  comparative  distinctness  the  Church  of  the 
Age  of  Cyprian  and  Origen,  but  with  respect  to  the  inter- 
val separating  the  two  periods  we  are  not  indeed  wholly, 
but,  we  are,  it  must  be  confessed,  very  largely  ignorant. 
And  yet  as  in  the  case  of  the  tunnel  we  confidently 
affirm  an  identity  between  what  we  saw  go  in  and  what 
we  see  coming  out,  so  with  the  doctrine,  discipline,  and 
worship  of  the  Church,  the  usages  of  the  third  century, 
we  argue,  are  probably  in  their  leading  features  what 
the  usages  of  the  first  century  were.  If  reason  to  the 
contrary  can  be  given,  well  and  good  ;  but  in  the  ab- 
sence of  countervailing  testimony  we  abide  by  our 
inference,  holding  it  to  be  sound. 

I  am  far  from  wishing  to  maintain  that  these  consid- 
erations bind  liturgical  worship  upon  the  Christian 
Church  as  a  matter  of  obligation  for  all  time.  It  might 
be  argued,  and  I  think  with  great  force,  that  liturgical 
worship  having  been  universal  throughout  the  ancient 
world,  heathen  as  well  as  Jewish,  the  apostles  and 
fathers  of  the  Christian  Church  judged  it  unwise  to  make 


THE    BOOK   OF   COMMON   PRAYER.  19 

any  departure  at  the  outset  from  a  custom  so  invariable, 
trusting  it  to  the  spirit  of  the  new  religion  to  work  out 
freer  and  less  formal  methods  of  approaching  God 
through  Christ  in  the  times  to  come.  This,  I  confess, 
strikes  me  as  a  perfectly  legitimate  line  of  reasoning 
and  one  which  is  strengthened  rather  than  weakened  by 
what  we  have  seen  happen  in  Christendom  since  the 
sixteenth  century.  Great  bodies  of  Christians  have  for 
a  period  of  some  three  hundred  years  been  worshipping 
Almighty  God  in  non-liturgical  ways,  and  have  not  been 
left  without  witness  that  their  service  was  acceptable 
to  the  Divine  Majesty.  Moreover,  the  fact  that  absolute 
rigidity  in  liturgical  use  never  was  insisted  upon  in 
any  age  of  the  Church  until  the  English  passed  their  Act 
of  Uniformity,  makes  in  the  same  direction.  And  yet 
even  after  these  allowances  have  been  made,  there  re- 
mains a  considerable  amount  of  solid  satisfaction  for 
those  who  do  adhere  to  the  liturgical  method,  in  the 
thought  that  they  are  in  the  line  which  is  apparently 
the  line  of  continuity,  and  that  their  interpretation  of 
the  apostolic  purpose  with  respect  to  worship  is  the 
interpretation  that  has  been  generally  received  in 
Christendom  as  far  back  as  we  can  go. 


20  A   SHORT   HISTORY    OF 


IT. 

VICISSITUDES. 


Certain  of  the  necromancers  of  the  far  East  are  said 
to  have  the  power  of  causing  a  tree  to  spring  up,  spread 
its  branches,  blossom,  and  bear  fruit  before  the  eyes  of 
the  lookers-on  within  the  space  of  a  few  moments. 

Modern  liturgies  have  sometimes  been  brought  into 
being  by  a  process  as  extemporaneous  as  this,  but  not 
such  was  the  genesis  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

There  are  at  least  eight  forms  under  which  the 
Prayer  Book  has  been  from  time  to  time  authoritatively 
set  forth — five  English,  one  Scottish,  one  Irish,  and  one 
American  ;  so  that,  if  we  would  be  accurate,  we  are 
bound  to  specify,  when  we  speak  of  "  The  Prayer  Book," 
which  of  several  Prayer  Books  we  have  in  mind. 

The  truth  is,  there  exists  in  connection  with  every- 
thing that  grows,  whether  it  be  plant,  animal,  or  build- 
ing, a  certain  mystery  like  that  which  attaches  to  what, 
in  the  case  of  a  man,  we  call  personal  identity.  "Which 
is  the  true,  the  actual  Napoleon  ?  Is  it  the  Napoleon  of 
the  Directory,  or  the  Napoleon  of  the  Consulate,  or  the 
Napoleon  of  the  Empire  ?  At  each  epoch  we  discern  a 
different  phase  of  the  man's  character,  and  yet  we  are 
compelled  to  acknowledge,  in  the  face  of  all  the  vari- 
ations, that  we  have  to  do  with  one  and  the  same 
man. 

But  just  as  a  ship  acquires,  as  we  may  say,  her  personal 
identity  when  she  is  launched  and  named,  even  though 


THE    BOOK   OP   COMMON   PRAYER.  21 

there  may  be  a  great  deal  yet  to  be  done  in  the  way  of 
finishing  and  furnishing  before  she  can  be  pronounced  sea- 
worthy, so  it  is  with  a  book  that  is  destined  to  undergo 
repeated  revision  and  reconstruction,  it  does  acquire,  on 
the  day  when  it  is  first  published,  and  first  given  a  dis- 
tinctive title,  a  certain  character  the  losing  of  which 
would  be  the  loss  of  personal  identity.  There  is  many  an 
old  cathedral  that  might  properly  enough  be  called  a  re- 
edited  book  in  stone.  Norman  architecture,  Early  Eng- 
lish, Decorated,  and  Perpendicular,  all  are  there,  and  yet 
one  dominant  thought  pervades  the  building.  Notwith- 
standing the  many  times  it  has  been  retouched,  the 
fabric  still  expresses  to  the  eye  the  original  creative 
purpose  of  the  designer  ;  there  is  no  possibility  of  our 
mistaking  Salisbury  for  York  or  Peterborough  for 
London. 

The  first  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  built  up  of 
blocks  that  for  the  most  part  had  been  previously  used 
in  other  buildings,  but  the  resulting  structure  exhibited, 
from  the  very  moment  it  received  a  name,  such  distinct 
and  unmistakable  characteristics  as  have  guaranteed  it 
personal  identity  through  more  than  three  hundred 
years.  Hence,  while  it  is  in  one  sense  true  that  there 
are  no  fewer  than  eight  Books  of  Common  Prayer,  it  is 
in  another  sense  equally  true  that  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  is  one. 

An  identity  of  purpose,  of  scope,  and  of  spirit  shows 
itself  in  all  its  various  forms  under  which  the  book 
exists,  so  that  whether  we  are  speaking  of  the  First 
Prayer  Book  of  King  Edward  the  Sixth,  or  of  the  book 
adopted  by  the  Church  of  Ireland  after  its  disestablish- 
ment, or  of  the  American  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 


22  A  SHORT  HISTORY   OF 

what  we  have  in  mind  is,  in  a  very  real  and  deep  sense, 
one  and  the  same  thing. 

Let  us  proceed  now  to  a  rapid  survey  of  the  facts  con- 
nected with  the  first  issue  of  the  Common  Prayer. 

For  a  period  long  anterior  to  the  Reformation  there 
had  been  in  use  among  the  English  brief  books  of  devo- 
tion known  as  "  primers,"  written  in  the  language  of  the 
people.  The  fact  that  the  public  services  of  the  Church 
were  invariably  conducted  in  the  Latin  tongue  made 
a  resort  to  such  expedients  as  this  necessary,  unless 
religion  was  to  be  reserved  as  the  private  property  of 
ecclesiastics. 

By  a  curious  process  of  evolution  the  primer,  from 
having  been  in  mediaeval  times  a  book  wholly  religious 
and  devotional,  has  come  to  be  in  our  day  a  book  wholly 
secular  and  educational.  We  associate  it  with  Noah 
Webster  and  the  Harper  Brothers.  The  New  England 
Primer  of  the  Puritans,  with  its  odd  jumble  of  piety 
and  the  three  R's,  marks  a  point  of  transition  from  the 
ancient  to  the  modern  type. 

But  this  by  the  way.  The  primer  we  are  now  con- 
cerned with  is  the  devotional  primer  of  the  times  just 
previous  to  the  Reformation.  This,  as  a  rule,  contained 
prayers,  the  Belief,  the  Ave  Maria,  a  litany  of  some  sort, 
the  Ten  Commandments,  and  whatever  else  there  might 
be  that  in  the  mind  of  the  compiler  came  under  the  head 
of  "  things  which  a  Christian  ought  to  know."  There 
were  three  of  these  primers  set  forth  during  the  reign 
of  Henry  the  Eighth,  one  in  1535,  one  in  1539,  and  one 
in  1545.  During  the  space  that  intervened  between 
the  publication  of  the  second  and  that  of  the  third  of 
these  primers,  appeared  "  The  Litany  and  Suffrages,"  a 


THE   BOOK    OF    COMMON    PRAYEE.  23 

formulary  compiled,  as  is  generally  believed,  by  Cran- 
mer,  the  then  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  in  sub- 
stance identical  with  the  Litany  we  use  to-day.  This 
Litany  of  1544  has  been  properly  described  as  "  the 
precursor  and  first  instalment  of  the  English  Book  of 
Common  Prayer."  It  was  the  nucleus  or  centre  of 
crystallization  about  which  the  other  constituent  portions 
of  our  manual  of  worship  were  destined  to  be  grouped. 
A  quaint  exhortation  was  prefixed  to  this  Litany,  in 
which  it  was  said  to  have  been  set  forth  "  because  the 
not  ^understanding  the  prayers  and  suffrages  formerly 
used  caused  that  the  people  came  but  slackly  to  the  pro- 
cessions." Besides  the  primers  and  the  Litany,  there 
were  printed  in  Henry's  reign  various  editions  of  a  book 
of  Epistles  and  Gospels  in  English.  There  was  also 
published  a  Psalter  in  Latin  and  English. 

All  this  looked  rather  to  the  edification  of  individual 
Christians  in  their  private  devotional  life  than  to  the 
public  worship  of  the  Church,  but  we  are  not  to  suppose 
that  meanwhile  the  larger  interests  of  the  whole  body 
were  forgotten.  So  early  as  in  the  year  1542,  Convo- 
cation, which  according  to  the  Anglican  theory  stands 
toward  the  Church  in  the  same  attitude  that  Parliament 
holds  to  the  State,  appointed  a  Committee  of  Eight  to 
review  and  correct  the  existing  service-books.  We 
know  very  little  as  to  the  proceedings  of  this  committee, 
but  that  something  was  done,  and  a  real  impulse  given  to 
liturgical  revision,  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  at  a 
meeting  of  Convocation  held  soon  after  King  Henry's 
death  a  resolution  prevailed  "  That  the  books  of  the 
Bishops  and  others  who  by  the  command  of  the  Convo- 
cation   have    labored    in »  examining,   reforming,   and 


24  A    SHORT    HISTORY    OF 

publishing  the  divine  service,  may  be  produced  and 
laid  before  the  examination  of  this  house." 

The  next  important  step  in  the  process  we  are  study- 
ing was  the  publication  by  authority  in  the  early  spring 
of  1548,  of  an  Order  of  the  Communion,  as  it  was  called, 
a  formulary  prepared  by  Cranmer  to  enable  the  priest, 
after  having  consecrated  the  elements  in  the  usual 
manner,  to  distribute  them  to  the  people  with  the  sen- 
tences of  delivery  spoken  in  English.  The  priest,  that 
is  to  say,  was  to  proceed  with  the  service  of  the  Mass  as 
usual  in  the  Latin  tongue,  but  after  he  had  himself 
received  the  bread  and  the  wine,  he  was  to  proceed  to  a 
service  of  Communion  for  the  people  in  a  speech  they 
could  understand. 

Almost  everything  in  this  tentative  document,  as  we 
may  call  it,  was  subsequently  incorporated  in  the  Office 
of  the  Holy  Communion  as  we  are  using  it  to-day. 

We  have,  then,  as  an  abiding  result  of  the  liturgical 
experiments  made  in  anticipation  of  the  actual  setting 
forth  of  an  authoritative  Prayer  Book,  the  Litany  and 
this  Order  of  the  Communion. 

The  time  was  now  ripe  for  something  better  and  more 
complete  ;  a  new  king  was  upon  the  throne,  and  one 
whose  counsellors  were  better  disposed  toward  change 
than  ever  Henry  had  been.  The  great  movement  we 
know  under  the  name  of  the  Reformation  touched  the 
life  of  the  Christian  Church  in  every  one  of  its  three 
great  departments — doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship. 
In  Henry's  mind,  however,  the  question  appears  to  have 
been  almost  exclusively  one  of  discipline  or  polity.  His 
quarrel  was  not  with  the  accepted  theological  errors  of 
his  day,  for  as  Defender  of  the  Faith  he  covered  some 


THE    BOOK    OF    COMMON    PRAYER.  25 

of  the  worst  of  them  with  his  shield.  Neither  was  he 
ill-disposed  toward  the  methods  and  usages  of  public 
worship  so  far  as  we  can  judge.  His  quarrel  first,  last, 
and  always  was  with  a  certain  rival  claimant  of  power, 
whose  pretended  authority  he  was  determined  to  drive 
out  of  the  realm,  to  wit,  the  Pope.  But  while  it  was 
thus  with  Henry,  it  was  far  otherwise  with  many  of  the 
more  thoughtful  and  devout  among  his  theologians,  and 
when  the  restraint  that  had  been  laid  on  them  was 
removed  by  the  king's  death,  they  welcomed  the  oppor- 
tunity to  apply  to  doctrine  and  worship  the  same 
reforming  touch  that  had  already  remoulded  polity. 

An  enlarged  Committee  of  Convocation  sat  at  Wind- 
sor in  the  summer  of  1548,  and  as  a  result  there  was 
finally  set  forth,  and  ordered  to  be  put  into  use  on  Whit- 
sunday, 1549,  what  has  become  known  in  history  as  the 
"  First  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI." 

To  dwell  on  those  features  of  the  First  Book  that 
have  remained  unaltered  to  the  present  day  would  be 
superfluous  ;  I  shall  therefore,  in  speaking  of  it,  confine 
myself  to  the  distinctive  and  characteristic  points  in 
which  it  differs  from  the  Prayer  Books  that  have  suc- 
ceeded it. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  the  title  page  of  the  First 
Book  there  is  a  clear  distinction  drawn  between  the 
Church  Universal,  or  what  we  call  in  the  Te  JDeum 
"the  holy  Church  throughout  all  the  world,"  and  that 
particular  Church  to  which  King  Edward's  subjects,  in 
virtue  of  their  being  Englishmen,  belonged.  The  book 
is  said  to  be  "the  Book  of  the  Common  Prayer  and 
administration  of  the  Sacraments  and  other  Rites  and 
Ceremonies  of  The  Church,  after  the  use  of  the  Church 


26  A   SHORT    HISTORY    OF 

of  England."  "  The  Church  "  is  recognized  as  being  a 
larger  and,  perhaps,  older  thing  than  the  Church  of 
England,  while  at  the  same  time  it  is  intimated  that 
only  through  such  use  of  these  same  prayers  and  sacra- 
ments as  the  English  Church  ordains  and  authorizes  can 
English  folk  come  into  communion  with  the  great 
family  of  believers  spread  over  the  whole  earth. 

The  Preface  is  a  singularly  racy  piece  of  English,  in 
which  with  the  utmost  plainness  of  speech  the  compilers 
give  their  reasons  for  having  dealt  with  the  old  services 
as  they  have  done.  This  reappears  in  the  English 
Prayer  Book  of  the  present  day  under  the  title  "  Con- 
cerning the  Service  of  the  Church,"  and  so  described  is 
placed  after  the  Preface  written  in  1662  by  the  Revisers 
of  the  Restoration. 

The  Order  for  Daily  Morning  Prayer,  as  we  name  it, 
is  called  in  Edward's  First  Book  "  An  Order  for  Matins 
daily  through  the  year."  Similarly,  what  we  call  the 
Order  for  Daily  Evening  Prayer  was  styled  "An  Order 
for  Evensong."  These  beautiful  names,  "  Matins  "  and 
"  Evensong,"  which  it  is  a  great  pity  to  have  lost,  for 
surely  there  is  nothing  superstitious  about  them,  disap- 
peared from  the  book  as  subsequently  revised,  and  save 
in  the  Lectionary  of  the  Church  of  England  have  no 
present  recognition.  One  of  them,  however,  Evensong, 
seems  to  be  coming  very  generally  into  colloquial  use. 
The  Order  for  Matins  began  with  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Then,  after  the  familiar  versicles  still  in  use,  including 
two  that  have  no  place  in  our  American  book,  "  O  God, 
make  speed  to  save  me.  O  Lord,  make  haste  to  help 
me,"  there  followed  in  full  the  95th  Psalm,  a  portion  of 
which  is  known  to  us  as  the  Venite.     From  this  point 


THE     BOOK    OF    COMMON   PRAYER.  27 

the  service  proceeded,  as  in  the  English  Prayer  Book  of 
to-day,  through  the  Collect  for  Grace,  where  it  came  to 
an  end.  The  structure  of  Evensong  was  similar,  begin- 
ning with  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  ending,  as  our  shortened 
Evening  Prayer  now  does,  with  the  Collect  for  Aid 
against  Perils.  Then  followed  the  Athanasian  Creed, 
and  immediately  afterward  came  the  Introits,  Collects, 
Epistles,  and  Gospels. 

These  Introits,  so-called,  were  psalms  appointed  to  be 
sung  when  the  priest  was  about  to  begin  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. They  had  been  an  ancient  feature  of  divine 
service,  but  were  dropped  from  the  subsequent  books  as 
a  required  feature  of  the  Church's  worship. 

The  title  of  the  Communion  Service  in  Edward's  First 
Book  is  as  follows  :  "The  Supper  of  the  Lord  and  the 
Holy  Communion  commonly  called  the  Mass."  Imme- 
diately after  the  Prayer  for  Purity — i.  e.,  in  the  place 
where  we  have  the  Ten  Commandments,  comes  the 
Gloria  in  Excelsis.  The  service  then  proceeds  very 
much  as  with  us,  except  that  the  Prayer  for  the  Church 
Militant  and  the  Consecration  Prayer  are  welded  into 
one,  and  the  Prayer  of  Humble  Access  given  a  place 
immediately  before  the  reception  of  the  elements.  I 
note,  in  passing,  certain  phrases  and  sentences  that  are 
peculiar  to  the  Communion  Office  of  the  First  Book,  as, 
for  instance,  this  from  the  Prayer  for  the  whole  state  of 
Christ's  Church  :  "  And  here  we  do  give  unto  thee  most 
high  praise  and  hearty  thanks  for  the  wonderful  grace 
and  virtue  declared  in  all  thy  saints  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world,  and  chiefly  in  the  most  glorious  and  blessed 
Virgin  Mary,  Mother  of  thy  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord 
and  God,  and  in  the  holy  patriarchs,  prophets,  apostles, 


28  A   SHORT   HISTORY    OF 

and  martyrs,  whose  examples,  O  Lord,  and  steadfast- 
ness in  thy  faith  and  keeping  thy  holy  commandments 
grant  us  to  follow.  We  commend  unto  thy  mercy,  O 
Lord,  all  other  thy  servants  which  are  departed  hence 
from  us  with  the  sign  of  faith  and  do  now  rest  in  the 
sleep  of  peace.  Grant  unto  them,  we  beseech  thee,  thy 
mercy  and  everlasting  peace,  and  that  at  the  day  of  the 
general  resurrection  we  and  all  they  which  be  of  the 
mystical  body  of  thy  Son  may  altogether  be  set  on  his 
right  hand." 

And  this  from  the  closing  portion  of  the  Consecration  : 
"Yet  we  beseech  thee  to  accept  this  our  bounden  duty 
and  service,  and  command  these  our  prayers  and  sup- 
plications by  the  ministry  of  thy  holy  angels  to  be 
brought  up  into  thy  holy  tabernacle  before  the  sight  of 
thy  divine  majesty." 

Following  close  upon  the  Communion  Service  came 
the  Litany,  differing  very  little  from  what  we  have 
to-day,  save  in  the  memorable  petition,  "From  the 
tyranny  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  and  all  his  detestable 
enormities,  good  Lord  deliver  us." 

The  Baptismal  Offices  of  the  First  Book  contain  cer- 
tain unique  features.  The  sign  of  the  cross  is  ordered 
to  be  made  on  the  child's  breast  as  well  as  on  his  fore- 
head. There  is  a  form  of  exorcism  said  over  the  infant 
in  which  the  unclean  spirit  is  commanded  to  come  out 
and  to  depart.  There  is  also  the  giving  of  the  "  Crisome  " 
or  white  vesture  as  a  symbol  of  innocence.  "Take  this 
white  vesture  for  a  token  of  the  innocency  which  by 
God's  grace  in  this  holy  sacrament  of  Baptism  is  given 
unto  thee,  and  for  a  sign  whereby  thou  art  admonished, 
so  long  as  thou  livest,  to  give  thyself  to  innocency  of 


THE    BOOK    OF   COMMON   PRATER.  29 

living,  that  after  this  transitory  life  thou  mayest  be  par- 
taker of  the  life  everlasting." 

The  Catechism-  in  Edward  VI.  First  Book,  as  in  the 
subsequent  books  down  to  1662,  is  made  a  part  of  the 
Confirmation  Office,  although  it  does  not  clearly  appear 
that  the  children  were  expected  to  say  it  as  a  preliminary 
to  the  service. 

The  Office  for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick  contains  pro- 
vision for  private  confession  and  absolution,  and  also 
directs  that  the  priest  shall  anoint  the  sick  man  with  oil 
if  he  be  desired  to  do  so. 

The  Office  for  the  Communion  of  the  Sick  allows  the 
practice  of  what  is  called  the  reservation  of  the  elements, 
but  contains  also,  be  it  observed,  that  rubric  which  has 
held  its  place  through  all  the  changes  the  Prayer  Book 
has  undergone,  where  we  are  taught  that  if  the  sick  man 
by  any  "  just  impediment  fail  to  receive  the  sacrament 
of  Christ's  body  and  blood,  the  curate  shall  instruct  him 
that  if  he  do  truly  repent  him  of  his  sins  and  steadfastly 
believe  that  Jesus  Christ  hath  suffered  death  upon  the 
cross  for  him  ...  he  doth  eat  and  drink  the  body  and 
blood  of  our  Saviour  Christ,  profitably  to  his  soul's  health 
although  he  do  not  receive  the  sacrament  with  his  mouth." 

The  Burial  Office  contains  a  recognition  of  prayer  for 
the  dead,  but  except  in  the  matter  of  the  arrangement 
of  the  parts  differs  but  little  from  the  service  still  in 
use.  A  special  Introit,  Collect,  Epistle,  and  Gospel  are 
appointed  "  for  the  Celebration  of  the  Holy  Communion 
when  there  is  a  Burial  of  the  Dead." 

A  Commination  Office  for  Ash -Wednesday,  substan- 
tially identical  with  that  still  in  use  in  the  Church  of 
England,  concludes  the  book. 


30  A    SHORT    HISTORY    OF 

The  First  Prayer  Book  of  King  Edward  the  Sixth, 
memorable  as  it  was  destined  to  become,  proved,  so  far 
as  actual  use  was  concerned,  but  short-lived.  It  became 
operative,  as  we  have  seen,  on  Whitsunday,  1549,  but 
it  was  soon  evident  that  while  the  new  services  went  too 
far  in  the  direction  of  reform  to  please  the  friends  of 
the  ancient  order  of  things,  they  did  not  go  far  enough 
to  meet  the  wishes  of  the  reforming  party. 

Before  the  year  was  out  no  fewer  than  three  trans- 
lations of  the  Liturgy  into  Latin  had  been  undertaken 
with  a  view  to  informing  the  Protestant  divines  of  the 
Continent  as  to  what  their  English  colleagues  were 
doing.  "There  was  already  within  the  Church"  (of 
England),  writes  Cardwell,  in  his  comparison  of  Edward's 
two  books,  "a  party,  though  probably  not  numerous, 
which  espoused  the  peculiar  sentiments  of  Calvin  ;  there 
were  others,  and  Cranmer,  it  appears,  had  recently  been 
one  of  them,  adhering  strictly  to  the  opinions  of  Luther  ; 
there  were  many,  and  those  among  the  most  active  and 
the  most  learned,  who  adopted  the  views  of  Bullinger 
and  the  theologians  of  Zurich  ;  there  was  a  still  larger 
body  anxious  to  combine  all  classes  of  Protestants  under 
one  general  confession,  and  all  these,  though  with  dis- 
tinct objects  and  different  degrees  of  impatience,  looked 
forward  to  a  revision  of  the  Liturgy,  to  bring  it  more 
completely  into  accordance  with  their  own  sentiments." 

As  a  result  of  the  agitation  thus  vividly  pictured  by 
Cardwell,  there  came  forth  in  1552  the  book  known  as 
the  Second  Prayer  Book  of  King  Edward  VI.,  a  work  of 
the  very  greatest  interest,  for  the  reason  that  it  was  des- 
tined to  become  the  basis  of  all  future  revisions.  Whit- 
sunday, 1549,  was  the  day  when  the  First  Book  began 


THE    BOOK    OP   COMMON   PRAYER.  3l 

to  be  used.  The  Feast  of  All  Saints,  1552,  was  the  date 
officially  appointed  for  the  introduction  of  the  Second 
Book.  Presently  King  Edward  died,  and  by  an  act  of 
Mary  passed  in  October,  1553,  the  use  of  his  Book  be- 
came illegal  on  and  after  December  20th  of  that  year. 
It  thus  appears  that  the  First  Book  was  in  use  for  two 
years  and  about  four  months,  and  the  Second  Book  one 
year  and  about  two  months.  A  memorable  three  years 
and  a  half  for  the  English-speaking  peoples  of  all  time 
to  come,  for  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  while  the 
language  of  Tyndale  and  of  Cranmer  continues  to  be 
heard  on  earth,  the  devotions  then  put  into  form  will 
keep  on  moulding  the  religious  thought  and  firing  the 
spiritual  imagination  of  this  race. 

The  points  in  which  the  second  of  King  Edward's 
two  books  differs  from  the  first  are  of  such  serious 
moment  and  the  general  complexion  of  the  later  work 
has  in  it  such  an  access  of  Protestant  coloring,  that  high 
Anglican  writers  have  been  in  the  habit  of  attributing 
the  main  features  of  the  revision  to  the  interference  of 
the  Continental  Reformers.  "  If  it  had  not  been  for 
the  impertinent  meddling,"  they  have  been  accustomed 
to  say,  "  of  such  foreigners  as  Bucer,  Peter  Martyr,  and 
John  a-Lasco,  we  might  have  been  enjoying  at  the 
present  day  the  admirable  and  truly  Catholic  devotions 
set  forth  in  the  fresh  morning  of  the  Reformation,  before 
the  earth-born  vapors  of  theological  controversy  and 
ecclesiastical  partisanship  had  beclouded  an  otherwise 
fair  sky."  But  it  does  not  appear  that  there  is  any  solid 
foundation  in  fact  for  these  complaints. 

The  natural  spread  of  the  spirit  of  reform  among  the 
people  of  the  realm,  taken  in  connection  with  the  changes 


32  A   SHORT'   HISTORY    OF 

of  opinion  which  the  swift  movement  of  the  times 
necessarily  engendered  in  the  minds  of  the  leading  di- 
vines, are  of  themselves  quite  sufficient  to  account  for 
what  took  place.  Certainly,  if  the  English  of  that  day 
were  at  all  like  their  descendants  in  our  time,  it  is  in  the 
highest  degree  unlikely  that  they  would  have  allowed  a 
handful  of  learned  refugees  to  force  upon  them  changes 
which  their  own  sober  judgment  did  not  approve. 

The  truth  is,  very  little  is  certainly  known  as  to  the 
details  of  what  was  done  in  the  making  of  Edward's 
Second  Book.  Even  the  names  of  the  members  of  the 
committee  intrusted  with  the  revision  are  matter  of  con- 
jecture, and  of  the  proceedings  of  that  body  no  authen- 
tic record  survives.  What  we  do  possess  and  are  in  a 
position  to  criticise  is  the  book  itself,  and  to  a  brief 
review  of  the  points  in  which  it  differs  from  its  prede- 
cessor we  will  now  pass. 

Upon  taking  up  the  Second  Book  after  laying  down 
the  First,  one  is  struck  immediately  with  the  changed 
look  of  Morning  Prayer.  This  is  no  longer  called 
Matins,  and  no  longer  begins  as  before  with  the  Lord's 
Prayer.  An  Introduction  has  been  prefixed  to  the 
office  consisting  of  a  collection  of  sentences  from  Holy 
Scripture,  all  of  them  of  a  penitential  character,  and 
besides  these  of  an  Exhortation,  a  Confession,  and  an 
Absolution.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  oppor- 
tunity for  making  public  acknowledgment  of  sin  and 
hearing  the  declaration  of  God's  willingness  to  forgive, 
was  meant  to  counterbalance  the  removal  from  the  book 
of  all  reference,  save  in  one  instance,  to  private  con- 
fession and  absolution.  The  Church  of  England  has 
always  retained  in  her  Visitation  Office  a  permission  to 


THE   BOOK    OF   COMMON   PRAYER.  33 

the  priest  to  pronounce  absolution  privately  to  the  sick 
man.  This  was  a  feature  of  the  First  Book  that  was 
not  disturbed  in  the  Second.  But  wherever  else  they 
found  anything  that  seemed  to  look  toward  the  continu- 
ance of  the  system  familiarly  known  to  us  under  the 
name  of  "the  Confessional,"  they  expunged  it.  Be- 
tween the  Exhortation  and  the  Confession  there  is,  in 
point  of  literary  merit,  a  noticeable  contrast,  and  it  is 
scarcely  to  be  believed  that  both  formularies  can 
have  proceeded  from  one  and  the  same  pen.  Another 
step  in  the  Protestant  direction  was  the  prohibition  of 
certain  vestments  that  in  the  First  Book  had  been 
allowed,  as  the  alb  and  cope.  The  Introit  Psalms  were 
taken  away.  The  word  "  table  "  was  everywhere  sub- 
stituted for  the  word  "altar."  The  changes  in  the 
Office  of  the  Holy  Communion  were  numerous  and 
significant.  The  Ten  Commandments,  for  instance, 
were  inserted  in  the  place  where  we  now  have  them. 
The  Gloria  in  Excelsis  was  transferred  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  service  to  the  end.  The  Exhortations  were 
re-written.  The  supplication  for  the  dead  was  taken 
out  of  the  Prayer  for  the  whole  state  of  Christ's  Church, 
and  the  words  "  militant  here  on  earth  "  were  added  to 
the  title  with  a  view  to  confining  the  scope  of  the  inter- 
cession to  the  circle  of  people  still  alive.  The  Confes- 
sion, Absolution,  Comfortable  Words,  and  Prayer  of 
Humble  Access  were  placed  before  the  Consecration 
instead  of  after  it.  Most  important  of  all  was  the 
change  of  the  words  appointed  to  be  said  in  delivering 
the  elements  to  the  communicants.  In  the  First  Book 
these  had  been,  "The  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
which  was  given  for  thee,  preserve  thy  body  and  soul 


34  £    SHORT    HISTORY    OF 

unto  everlasting  life,"  and  in  the  case  of  the  cup,  "  The 
blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which  was  shed  for 
thee,  preserve  thy  body  and  soul  unto  everlasting  life." 
For  these  were  now  substituted  in  the  one  instance  the 
words,  "  Take  and  eat  this  in  remembrance  that  Christ 
died  for  thee,  and  feed  on  him  in  thy  heart  by  faith, 
with  thanksgiving,"  and  in  the  other,  "  Drink  this  in 
remembrance  that  Christ's  blood  was  shed  for  thee,  and 
be  thankful." 

From  the  Office  for'  the  Communion  of  the  Sick  the 
direction  to  reserve  the  elements  was  omitted,  as  was 
also  the  permission  to  anoint  the  sick  man  with  oil. 
The  Service  of  Baptism  was  no  longer  suffered  to  retain 
the  exorcism  of  the  evil  spirit,  or  the  white  vesture,  or 
the  unction  ;  and  there  were  other  items  of  less  impor- 
tant change.  Those  mentioned  reveal  plainly  enough 
what  was  the  animus  of  the  revisers.  Most  evidently 
the  intention  was  to  produce  a  liturgy  more  thoroughly 
reformed,  more  in  harmony  with  the  new  tone  and 
temper  which  the  religious  thought  of  the  times  was 
taking  on. 

We  come  to  the  Third  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 
Bloody  Mary  was  dead,  and  Elizabeth  had  succeeded  to 
the  throne. 

During  the  Roman  reaction  proclamation  had  been 
made  that  all  the  Reformed  service-books  should  be 
given  up  to  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  within  fifteen 
days  to  be  burned.  This  is  doubtless  the  reason  why 
copies  of  the  liturgical  books  of  Edward's  reign  are 
now  so  exceedingly  rare.  Reprints  of  them  abound,  but 
the  originals  exist  only  as  costly  curiosities. 

Soon  after  Elizabeth's  accession  a  committee  of  divines 


THE    BOOK    OF   COMMON   PRAYER.  35 

assembled  under  her  authority  for  the  purpose  of  again 
revising  the  formularies. 

The  queen  was  personally  a  High-Churchwoman,  and 
her  own  judgment  is  said  to  have  been  favorable  to 
taking  the  first  of  Edward's  two  books  as  the  basis  of 
the  revision,  but  a  contrary  preference  swayed  the 
committee,  and  the  lines  followed  were  those  of  1552 
and  not  those  of  1549. 

The  new  features  distinctive  of  the  Prayer  Book  of 
Elizabeth,  otherwise  known  as  the  Prayer  Book  of  1559, 
are  not  numerous.  A  table  of  Proper  Lessons  for 
Sundays  was  introduced.  The  old  vestments  recognized 
in  the  earlier  part  of  King  Edward's  reign  were  again 
legalized.  The  petition  for  deliverance  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  Pope  was  struck  out  of  the  Litany,  and 
by  a  compromise  peculiarly  English  in  its  character,  and, 
as  experience  has  shown,  exceedingly  well  judged,  the 
two  forms  of  words  that  had  been  used  in  the  de- 
livery of  the  elements  in  the  Holy  Communion  were 
welded  together  into  the  shape  in  which  we  have  them 
still. 

Queen  Elizabeth's  Prayer  Book  continued  in  use  for 
five-and-forty  years.  Nothing  was  more  natural  than 
that  when  she  died  there  should  come  with  the  acces- 
sion of  a  new  dynasty  a  demand  for  fresh  revision. 
King  James,  who  was  not  afflicted  with  any  want  of 
confidence  in  his  own  judgment,  invited  certain  repre- 
sentatives of  the  disaffected  party  to  meet,  under  his 
presidency,  the  Churchmen  in  council  with  a  view  to 
the  settlement  of  differences.  The  Puritans  had  been 
gaining  in  strength  during  Elizabeth's  reign,  and  they 
felt  that  they  were  now  in  position  to  demand  a  larger 


36  A   SHORT   HISTORY    OP 

measure  of  liturgical  reform  than  that  monarch  and  her 
advisers  had  been  willing  to  concede  to  them. 

King  James  convened  his  conference  at  Hampton 
Court,  near  London,  and  he  himself  was  good  enough 
to  preside.  Very  little  came  of  the  debate.  The  Puri- 
tans had  demanded  the  discontinuance  of  the  sign  of  the 
cross  in  Baptism,  of  bowing  at  the  name  of  Jesus,  of 
the  ring  in  marriage,  and  of  the  rite  of  confirmation. 
The  words  "  priest  "  and  "  absolution  "  they  sought  to 
have  expunged  from  the  Prayer  Book,  and  they  desired 
that  the  wearing  of  the  surplice  should  be  made  optional. 

Almost  nothing  was  conceded  to  them.  The  words 
"  or  Remission  of  Sins  "  were  added  to  the  title  of  the 
Absolution,  certain  Prayers  and  Thanksgivings  were  in- 
troduced, and  that  portion  of  the  Catechism  which  deals 
with  the  Sacraments  was  for  the  first  time  set  forth. 
And  thus  the  English  Prayer  Book  started  out  upon  its 
fourth  lease  of  life  destined  in  this  form  to  endure  un- 
changed, though  by  no  means  unassailed,  for  more  than 
half  a  century. 

A  stirring  half  century  it  was.  The  Puritan  defeat 
at  Hampton  Court  was  redressed  at  Naseby.  "With  the 
coming  in  of  the  Long  Parliament  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  went  out,  and  to  all  appearances  the  tri- 
umph of  the  Commonwealth  meant  the  final  extinction 
of  the  usage  of  liturgical  worship  on  English  soil.  The 
book,  under  its  various  forms,  had  lasted  just  a  hundred 
years  when  he  who 

Nothing  common  did  or  mean 
Upon  that  memorable  scene 

suffered  at  Whitehall. 


THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER.  37 

They  buried  him  in  St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor, 
and  no  single  word  of  the  Prayer  Book  he  had  loved 
and  for  which  he  had  fought  was  said  over  his  grave. 

On  January  3,  1645,  Parliament  repealed  the  statutes 
of  Edward  VI.  and  of  Elizabeth  that  had  enjoined  the 
use  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  took  order  that 
thereafter  only  such  divine  service  should  be  lawful  as 
accorded  with  what  was  called  the  Directory r,  a  manual 
of  suggestions  with  respect  to  public  worship  adopted 
by  the  Presbyterian  party  as  a  substitute  for  the  ancient 
liturgy. 

With  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  in  1660  came 
naturally  the  restoration  of  the  Prayer  Book,  and  with 
equal  naturalness  a  revision  of  it.  But  of  what  sort 
should  the  revision  be,  and  under  whose  auspices  con- 
ducted ?  This  was  an  anxious  question  for  the  advisers, 
civil  and  ecclesiastical,  of  the  restored  king.  Should 
the  second  Charles  take  up  the  book  just  as  it  had  fallen 
from  the  hands  of  the  first  Charles,  unchanged  in  line 
or  letter,  or  should  he  seek  by  judicious  alterations  and 
timely  concessions  to  win  back  for  the  national  Church 
the  good-will  and  loyalty  of  those  who,  eighteen  years 
before,  had  broken  down  her  hedge?  The  situation 
may  be  described  as  triangular. 

The  king's  secret  and  personal  sympathies  were 
probably  all  along  with  the  Roman  Church  ;  his  official 
allegiance  was  plainly  due  to  the  Church  of  England; 
and  yet,  at  the  same  time,  he  owed  much  to  the  for- 
bearance of  the  men  who  had  been  dominant  under  the 
Commonwealth.  The  mind  of  the  nation  had,  indeed, 
reacted  toward  monarchy,  but  not  with  such  an  abso- 
lute and  hardy  renunciation  of  the  doctrines  of  popular 


38  A    SHORT    HISTORY    OF 

sovereignty  as  to  make  it  safe  for  the  returning  king 
to  do  precisely  as  he  chose.  The  glorious  Revolution 
that  was  destined  so  soon  to  follow  upon  the  heels  of 
the  gracious  Restoration  gave  evidence,  when  it  came, 
that  there  were  some  things  the  people  of  England 
prized  even  more  highly  than  an  hereditary  throne. 
Misgivings  as  to  the  amount  there  might  still  be  of  this 
sort  of  electricity  in  the  atmosphere  suggested  to  the 
king  and  his  counsellors  the  expediency  of  holding  a 
conference,  at  which  the  leaders  on  either  side  might 
bring  forward  their  strong  reasons  in  favor  of  this  or 
that  method  of  dealing  with  the  ecclesiastical  question 
in  general,  and  more  especially  with  the  vexed  problem 
of  worship. 

Accordingly,  early  in  the  spring  of  1661  the  King 
issued  a  royal  warrant  summoning  to  meet  at  the  Savoy 
Palace  in  the  Strand  an  equal  number  of  representatives 
of  both  parties — namely,  one-and-twenty  Churchmen 
and  one-and-twenty  Presbyterians. 

The  Episcopal  deputation  consisted  of  twelve  bishops 
and  nine  other  divines  called  coadjutors.  The  Presby- 
terians had  also  their  twelve  principal  men  and  their 
nine  coadjutors. 

Conspicuous  among  the  Episcopalians  for  weight  of 
learning  were  Bishops  Sanderson,  Cosin,  and  Walton, 
and  Doctors  Pearson,  Sparrow,  and  Heylin.  Baxter, 
Reynolds,  Calamy,  and  Lightfoot  were  the  most  nota- 
ble of  the  Presbyterians. 

The  conference,  which  has  ever  since  been  known 
from  its  place  of  meeting  (an  old  palace  of  the  Pied- 
montese  Ambassadors)  as  the  Savoy  Conference,  con- 
vened on  April   15,  1661.     For  various  reasons,  it  was 


THE    BOOK    OF    COMMON    PRAYER.  39 

evident  from  the  outset  that  the  Churchmen  were  in  a 
position  of  great  advantage.  In  the  first  place,  signs 
and  tokens  of  a  renewed  confidence  in  monarchy  and  of 
a  revived  attachment  to  the  reigning  House  were  be- 
coming daily  more  numerous. 

Before  he  had  had  a  chance  to  test  the  strength  of  the 
existing  political  parties  and  to  know  how  things  really 
stood,  Charles  had  borne  himself  very  discreetly  toward 
the  Presbyterians,  and  had  held  out  hopes  to  them 
which,  as  the  event  proved,  were  destined  never  to  be 
realized.  In  a  declaration  put  forth  in  the  autumn  of 
1660,  after  he  had  been  for  some  months  on  English 
soil,  he  had  even  gone  so  far  as  to  say:  "  When  we  were 
in  Holland  we  were  attended  by  many  grave  and  learned 
ministers  from  hence,  who  were  looked  upon  as  the  most 
able  and  principal  asserters  of  the  Presbyterian  opinions ; 
with  whom  we  had  as  much  conference  as  the  multitude 
of  affairs  which  were  then  upon  us  would  permit  us  to 
have,  and  to  our  great  satisfaction  and  comfort  found 
them  persons  full  of  affection  to  us,  of  zeal  for  the  peace 
of  the  Church  and  State,  and  neither  enemies,  as  they 
have  been  given  out  to  be,  to  episcopacy  or  liturgy,  but 
modestly  to  desire  such  alterations  in  either,  as  without 
shaking  foundations  might  best  allay  the  present  dis- 
tempers." 

By  the  time  the  conference  met  it  had  become  evident, 
from  votes  taken  in  Parliament  and  otherwise,  that  the 
Churchmen  could  sustain  toward  their  opponents  a  some- 
what stiffer  attitude  than  this  without  imperilling  their 
cause.  Another  great  advantage  enjoyed  by  the  Epis- 
copalians grew  out  of  the  fact  that  they  were  the  party 
in  possession.     They  had  only  to  profess  themselves  sat- 


40  A   SHORT    HISTORY   OP 

isfied  with  the  Prayer  Book  as  it  stood,  in  order  to  throw 
the  Presbyterians  into  the  position  of  assailants,  and  de- 
fense is  always  easier  than  attack.  Sheldon,  the  Bishop 
of  London,  was  not  slow  to  perceive  this.  At  the  very 
first  meeting  of  the  conference,  he  is  reported  to  have 
said  that  "as  the  Non -conformists,  and  not  the  bishops, 
had  sought  for  the  conference,  nothing  could  be  done 
till  the  former  had  delivered  their  exceptions  in  writing, 
together  with  the  additional  forms  and  alterations  which 
they  desired."  Upon  which  Bishop  Burnet  in  his 
History  of  his  own  Times  remarks  :  "  Sheldon  saw  well 
what  the  effect  would  be  of  putting  them  to  make  all  their 
demands  at  once.  The  number  of  them  raised  a  mighty 
outcry  against  them,  as  people  that  could  never  be 
satisfied." 

The  Presbyterians,  however,  took  up  the  challenge, 
set  to  work  at  formulating  their  objections,  and  ap- 
pointed Richard  Baxter,  the  most  famous  of  their  num- 
ber, to  show  what  could  be  done  in  the  way  of  making 
a  better  manual  of  worship  than  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer. 

Baxter,  a  truly  great  man  and  wise  in  a  way,  though 
scarcely  in  the  liturgical  way,  was  guilty  of  the  incred- 
ible folly  of  undertaking  to  construct  a  Prayer  Book 
within  a  fortnight. 

Of  this  liturgy  it  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  no  de- 
nomination of  Christians,  however  anti-prelatical  or 
eccentric,  would  for  a  moment  dream  of  adopting  it,  if, 
indeed,  there  be  a  single  local  congregation  anywhere 
that  could  be  persuaded  to  employ  it.  The  characteristic 
of  the  devotions  is  lengthiness.  The  opening  sentence 
of  the  prayer  with  which  the  book  begins  contains  by 


THE    BOOK    OF   COMMON   PRAYER.  41 

actual  count  eighty-three  words.  It  is  probable  that 
Baxter  by  his  rash  act  did  more  to  injure  the  cause  of 
intelligent  and  reverential  liturgical  revision  than  any 
ten  men  have  done  before  or  since.  In  every  discussion 
of  the  subject  he  is  almost  sure  to  be  brought  forward 
as  "the  awful  example." 

A  document  much  more  to  the  point  than  Baxter's 
Liturgy  was  the  formal  catalogue  of  faults  and  blemishes 
alleged  against  the  Prayer  Book,  which  the  Puritan 
members  of  the  conference  in  due  time  brought  in. 
This  indictment,  for  it  may  fairly  be  called  such,  since 
it  was  drawn  up  in  separate  counts,  is  very  interesting 
reading.  Of  the  "  exceptions  against  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,"  as  the  Puritans  named  their  list  of 
liturgical  grievances,  some  must  strike  almost  any 
reader  of  the  present  day  as  trivial  and  unworthy. 
Others  again  there  are  that  draw  a  sympathetic  Amen 
from  many  quarters  to-day.  To  an  American  Episco- 
palian the  catalogue  is  chiefly  interesting  as  showing 
how  ready  and  even  eager  were  our  colonial  ancestors 
of  a  hundred  years  ago  to  remove  out  of  the  way  such 
known  rocks  of  offence  as  they  could.  An  attentive 
student  of  the  American  Prayer  Book  cannot  fail  to  be 
struck  with  the  number  of  instances  in  which  the  text 
gives  evidence  of  the  influence  exerted  over  the  minds 
of  our  revisers  by  what  had  been  urged,  more  than  a 
hundred  years  before,  by  the  Puritan  members  of  the 
Savoy  Conference.  The  defeat  of  1661  was,  in  a 
measure  at  least,  avenged  in  1789.  It  is  encouraging 
to  those  who  cast  their  bread  upon  liturgical  waters  to 
notice  after  how  many  days  the  return  may  come.  But 
the  conference,  to  all  outward  seeming,  was  a  failure. 


42  jl  short  history  of 

Baxter's  unhappy  Prayer  Book  was  its  own  sufficient  ref- 
utation, and  as  for  the  list  of  special  grievances  it  was 
met  by  the  bishops  with  an  "  Answer  "  that  was  full  of 
hard  raps  and  conceded  almost  nothing. 

A  few  detached  paragraphs  may  serve  to  illustrate 
the  general  tone  of  this  reply.  Here,  for  instance,  is 
the  comment  of  the  bishops  upon  the  request  of  the 
Puritans  to  be  allowed  occasionally  to  substitute  extem- 
poraneous for  liturgical  devotions.  "  The  gift  or  rather 
spirit  of  prayer  consists  in  the  inward  graces  of  the 
spirit,  not  in  extempore  expressions  which  any  man  of 
natural  parts  having  a  voluble  tongue  and  audacity  may 
attain  to  without  any  special  gift."  Nothing  very  con- 
ciliatory in  that.  To  the  complaint  that  the  Collects/ 
are  too  short,  the  bishops  reply  that  they  cannot  for 
that  reason  be  accounted  faulty,  being  like  those  "  short 
but  prevalent  prayers  in  Scripture,  Lord,  be  merciful  to 
me  a  sinner.  Lord,  increase  our  faith."  The  Puritans 
had  objected  to  the  antiphonal  element  in  the  Prayer- 
Book  services,  and  desired  to  have  nothing  of  a  respon- 
sive character  allowed  beyond  the  single  word  Amen. 
"  But,"  rejoin  the  bishops,  "  they  directly  practise  the 
contrary  in  one  of  their  principal  parts  of  worship,  sing- 
ing of  psalms,  where  the  people  bear  as  great  a  part  as 
the  minister.  If  this  way  be  done  in  Hopkin's  why  not 
in  David's  Psalms  ;  if  in  metre,  why  not  in  prose  ;  if  in 
a  psalm,  why  not  in  a  litany  ?  "    Sharp,  but  not  winning. 

The  Puritans  had  objected  to  the  people's  kneeling 
while  the  Commandments  were  read  on  the  score  that 
ignorant  worshippers  might  mistake  the  Decalogue  for 
a  form  of  prayer.  With  some  asperity  the  bishops  reply 
that  "  why  Christian  people  should  not  upon  their  knees 


THE    BOOK    OF   COMMON   PEAYEE.  43 

ask  their  pardon  for  their  life  forfeited  for  the  breach 
of  every  commandment  and  pray  for  grace  to  keep 
them  for  the  time  to  come  they  must  be  more  than 
*  ignorant'  that  can  scruple." 

The  time  during  which  the  conference  at  the  Savoy 
should  continue  its  sessions  had  been  limited  to  four 
months.  This  period  expired  on  July  24,  1661,  and 
the  apparently  fruitless  disputation  was  at  an  end. 
Meanwhile,  however,  Convocation,  the  recognized  legis- 
lature of  the  Church  of  England,  had  begun  to  sit,  and 
the  bishops  had  undertaken  a  revision  of  the  Prayer 
Book  after  their  own  mind,  and  with  slight  regard  to 
what  they  had  been  hearing  from  their  critics  at  the 
Savoy.  The  bulk  of  their  work,  which  included,  it  is 
said,  more  than  six  hundred  alterations,  most  of  them 
of  a  verbal  character  and  of  no  great  importance,  was 
accomplished  within  the  compass  of  a  single  month.  It 
is  consoling  to  those  who  within  our  own  memory  have 
been  charged  with  indecent  haste  for  seeking  to  effect  a 
revision  of  the  American  Book  of  Common  Prayer  within 
a  period  of  nine  years,  to  find  this  precedent  in  ecclesias- 
tical history  for  their  so  great  rashness. 

Since  Charles  the  Second's  day  there  has  been  no 
formal  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book  of  the  Church  of 
England  by  the  Church  of  England. 

Some  slight  relaxations  of  liturgical  use  on  Sundays 
have  been  made  legal  by  Act  of  Parliament,  but  in  all 
important  respects  the  Prayer  Book  of  Victoria  is  iden- 
tical with  the  book  set  forth  by  Convocation  and  sanc- 
tioned by  Parliament  shortly  after  the  collapse  of  the 
Savoy  Conference.  Under  no  previous  lease  of  life  did 
the  book  enjoy  anything  like  so  long  a  period  of  con- 


44  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF 

tinued  existence.  Elizabeth's  book  was  the  longest  lived 
of  all  that  preceded  the  Restoration,  but  that  only  con- 
tinued in  use  five-and-forty  years.  But  the  Prayer  Book 
of  1661  has  now  held  its  own  in  England  for  two  cen- 
turies and  a  quarter.  When,  therefore,  we  are  asked  to 
accept  the  first  Edwardian  Book  as  the  only  just  ex- 
ponent of  the  religious  mind  of  England,  it  is  open  to 
us  to  reply,  "  Why  should  we,  seeing  that  the  Caroline 
Book  has  served  as  the  vehicle  of  English  devotion  for 
a  period  seventy -five  times  as  long  ?  "  The  most  vo- 
luminous of  the  additions  made  to  the  Prayer  Book,  in 
1661,  were  the  Office  for  the  Baptism  of  Adults  and  the 
Forms  of  Prayer  to  be  used  at  Sea.  The  wide  diffusion, 
under  the  Commonwealth,  of  what  were  then  called 
Anabaptist  opinions,  had  brought  it  to  pass  that  through- 
out the  kingdom  there  were  thousands  of  men  and 
women  who  had  grown  up  unbaptized.  At  the  time  of 
the  Reformation  such  a  thing  as  an  unchristened  Chris- 
tendom seems  not  to  have  been  thought  possible.  At 
any  rate  no  provision  was  made  for  the  contingency. 
But  upon  the  spread  of  liberty  of  religious  thought 
there  followed,  logically  enough,  the  spread  of  liberty 
of  religious  action,  and  it  was  not  strange  that  after  a 
whole  generation  had  spent  its  life  in  controversy  of 
the  warmest  sort  over  this  very  point  of  Baptism,  there 
were  found  to  be  in  England  multitudes  of  the  unbap- 
tized. 

Another  reason  assigned  in  the  Preface  of  the  Eng- 
lish Prayer  Book  for  the  addition  of  this  office  was  that 
it  might  be  used  for  the  baptizing  of  "  natives  in  the 
plantations  and  other  converts."  This  is  the  first  hint 
of  any  awakening  of   the  conscience   of  the   English 


THE    BOOK    OF    COMMON    PRAYER.  45 

Church  to  a  sense  of  duty  toward  those  strangers  and 
foreigners  who  in  the  "  Greater  Britain  "  of  these  later 
days  fill  so  large  a  place.  The  composition  of  the  office, 
which  differs  very  little,  perhaps  scarcely  enough,  from 
that  appointed  for  the  Baptism  of  Infants,  is  attributed 
to  Griffith,  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph.  The  compiler  of 
the  Forms  of  Prayer  to  be  used  at  Sea  was  Bishop 
Sanderson,  famous  among  English  theologians  as  an 
authority  on  casuistry.  He  must  have  found  it  rather 
a  nice  case  of  conscience  to  decide  whether  a  Stuart 
divine  in  preparing  forms  of  prayer  for  a  navy  that  had 
been  the  creation  of  Oliver  Cromwell  ought  wholly  to 
omit  an  acknowledgment  of  the  nation's  obligation  to 
that  stout-hearted,  if  non-Episcopal  Christian.  Other 
additions  of  importance  made  at  this  revision  were  the 
General  Thanksgiving,  in  all  probability  the  work  of 
Reynolds,  a  conforming  Presbyterian  divine,  the  Collect, 
Epistle,  and  Gospel  for  the  Sixth  Sunday  after  the 
Epiphany,  the  Prayer  for  Parliament,  upon  the  lines  of 
which  our  own  Prayer  for  Congress  was  afterward 
modelled,  and  the  Prayer  for  All  Sorts  and  Conditions 
of  Men.  In  the  Litany  the  words  "  rebellion  "  and 
"schism"  were  introduced  into  one  of  the  suffrages, 
becoming  tide-marks  of  the  havoc  wrought  in  Church 
and  State  by  what  the  revisers,  doubtless,  looked  back  up- 
on as  "the  flood  of  the  ungodly."  The  words  "Bishops, 
Priests,  and  Deacons"  were  substituted  for  "  Bishops, 
Pastors,  and  Ministers  of  the  Church."  New  Collects 
were  appointed  for  the  Third  Sunday  in  Advent  and 
for  St.  Stephen's  Day.  Both  of  these  are  distinct  gains, 
albeit  had  the  opinion  then  prevailed  that  to  introduce 
into  the  Prayer  Book  anything  from  the  pen  of  a  living 


46  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF 

writer  is  an  impiety,  we  should  have  gained  neither  of 
them. 

Another  important  change  made  in  1662  was  the 
adoption  for  the  Sentences,  Epistles  and  Gospels  of  the 
language  of  King  James's  Bible  in  place  of  that  of 
earlier  versions.  This  principle  was  not  applied  to  the 
Psalter,  to  the  Decalogue,  or,  in  fact,  to  any  of  the  por- 
tions of  Scripture  contained  in  the  Communion  Service. 

It  is  also  interesting  to  note  that  the  Confession  in 
the  Holy  Communion,  which  the  earlier  rubric  had 
directed  should  be  said  by  one  of  the  congregation,  or 
else  by  one  of  the  ministers,  or  by  the  .priest  himself, 
"  was  now  made  general  and  enjoined  upon  all  the  wor- 
shippers." 

Most  suggestive  of  all,  however,  was  the  reinsertion 
at  the  end  of  the  Communion  Service  of  a  certain 
Declaration  about  the  significance  of  the  act  of  kneeling 
at  the  reception  of  the  elements,  which  had,  as  some 
say,  irregularly  and  without  proper  authority,  found  its 
way  into  the  Second  Book  of  Edward  VI.,  but  had  been 
omitted  from  all  subsequent  books  till  now.  This 
Declaration,  which  from  its  not  being  printed  in  red 
ink  is  known  to  those  who  dislike  it  under  the  name  of 
"  the  black  rubric,"  was  undoubtedly  intended  to  ease 
the  consciences  of  those  who  scrupled  to  kneel  at  the 
altar-rail  for  fear  of  seeming  to  countenance  that  super- 
stitious adoration  of  the  elements  known  to  and  stigma- 
tized by  the  Reformers  as  "  host-worship."  The  lan- 
guage of  the  black  rubric  as  it  stood  in  Edward's 
Second  Book  was  as  follows  :  "  Although  no  order  can 
be  so  perfectly  devised  but  it  may  be  of  some,  either  for 
their  ignorance  and  infirmity,  or  else  of  malice  and  ob- 


THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER.  47 

stinacy,  misconstrued,  depraved,  and  interpreted  in  a 
wrong  part ;  and  yet  because  brotherly  charity  willeth 
that  so  much  as  conveniently  may  be  offences  should  be 
taken  away  ;  therefore  we  willing  to  do  the  same  : 
whereas,  it  is  ordained  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
in  the  Administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  that  the 
communicants  kneeling  should  receive  the  Holy  Com- 
munion, which  thing  being  well  meant  for  a  significa- 
tion of  the  humble  and  grateful  acknowledging  of  the 
benefits  of  Christ  given  unto  the  worthy  receiver,  and 
to  avoid  the  profanation  and  disorder,  which  about  the 
Holy  Communion  might  else  ensue,  lest  yet  the  same 
kneeling  might  be  thought  or  taken  otherwise  ;  we  do 
declare  that  it  is  not  meant  thereby,  that  any  adoration 
is  done  or  ought  to  be  done,  either  unto  the  sacramental 
bread  or  wine  there  bodily  received  or  unto  any  real 
and  essential  presence  there  being  of  Christ's  natural 
flesh  and  blood.  For  as  concerning  the  sacramental 
bread  and  wine  they  remain  still  in  their  very  natural 
substances,  and  therefore  may  not  be  adored,  for  that 
were  idolatry  to  be  abhorred  of  all  faithful  Christians  : 
and  as  concerning  the  natural  body  and  blood  of  our 
Saviour  Christ,  they  are  in  heaven  and  not  here,  for  it 
is  against  the  truth  of  Christ's  true  natural  body  to  be 
in  more  places  than  in  one  at  one  time." 

In  restoring  this  significant  Declaration,  the  revisers 
of  1662  substituted  the  words  "corporal  presence"  for 
the  words  "  real  and  substantial  presence,"  but  probably 
with  no  intention  other  than  that  of  making  the  original 
meaning  more  plain.  The  fact  that  in  the  teeth  and 
eyes  of  the  black  rubric  the  practice  known  as  Eucha- 
ristical  adoration  has  become  widely  prevalent  in  the 


48  A   SHORT   HISTORY    OF 

Church  of  England,  only  shows  how  little  dependence 
can  be  placed  on  forms  of  words  to  keep  even  excellent 
and  religious  people  from  doing  the  things  they  have  a 
mind  to  do. 

In  taking  leave  of  the  Caroline  revision,  it  may  be 
permitted  to  dwell  for  a  moment  upon  the  serious  char- 
acter of  the  conclusion  reached  by  the  ecclesiastical 
leaders  of  that  day.  An  opportunity  was  given  them  to 
conciliate  dissent.  Without  going  all  lengths,  without 
in  any  measure  imperilling  the  great  foundation  prin- 
ciples of  Anglican  religion,  they  might,  it  would  seem, 
have  won  back  to  the  national  church  thousands  of  those 
whom  their  sternness  not  only  repelled  but  permanently 
embittered.  But  it  was  the  hour  of  victory  with  the 
Churchmen,  and  "  Woe  to  the  conquered "  seems  to 
have  been  their  cry.  They  set  their  faces  as  a  flint 
against  concession  ;  they  passed  their  iron-clad  act  of 
uniformity,  and  now  for  more  than  two  hundred  years 
religion  in  Great  Britain  has  been  a  household  divided 
against  itself.  Perhaps  nothing  that  the  men  of  the 
Restoration  could  have  done  would  have  made  it  other- 
wise. Perhaps  the  familiar  question  of  the  cynical  Dean 
of  St.  Patrick's,  "  What  imports  it  how  large  a  gate  you 
open,  if  there  be  always  left  a  number  who  place  a  pride 
and  a  merit  in  refusing  to  enter  ?  "  was  a  fair  question, 
and  fatal  to  any  dream  of  unity.  And  yet  one  may  be 
pardoned  for  believing  that  had  a  little  of  the  oil  of 
brotherly  kindness  been  poured  upon  those  troubled 
waters  we  whom  the  waves  still  buffet  might  to-day  be 
sailing  a  smoother  sea. 

As  stated  above,  the  Convocation  of  1662  gave  to  the 
Prayer  Book  of  the  Church  of  England  the  form  it  has 


THE    BOOK    OP   COMMON   PRAYER.  49 

ever  since  retained.  But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that 
no  efforts  have  been  made  meanwhile  to  bring  changes 
to  pass.  The  books  written  upon  the  subject  form  a 
literature  by  themselves. 

The  one  really  serious  attempt  to  reconstruct  the 
Liturgy  in  post-Caroline  times  was  that  which  grew 
naturally  enough  out  of  the  Revolution  of  1688.  In 
every  previous  crisis  of  political  change,  the  Prayer 
Book  had  felt  the  tremor  along  with  the  statute-book. 

Church  and  State,  like  heart  and  brain,  are  sympa- 
thetically responsive  to  one  another  ;  revisions  of  rubrics 
go  naturally  along  with  revisions  of  codes.  It  was  only 
what  might  have  been  anticipated,  therefore,  that  when 
William  and  Mary  came  to  the  throne  a  Commission 
should  issue  for  a  new  review.  If  Elizabeth  had  found 
it  necessary  to  revise  the  book,  if  James  had  found  it 
necessary,  if  Charles  had  found  it  necessary,  why  should 
not  the  strong  hand  of  William  of  Orange  be  laid  upon 
the  pages  ?  But  this  time  the  rule  was  destined  to  find 
its  exception.  The  work  of  review  was,  indeed,  under- 
taken by  a  Royal  Commission,  including  among  its 
members  the  great  names  of  Stillingfleet,  Tillotson,  and 
Beveridge,  but  nothing  came  of  their  work.  Convoca- 
tion again  showed  itself  unfriendly  to  anything  like  con- 
cessive measures,  and  so  complete  was  the  obscurity  into 
which  the  doings  of  the  Commission  fell,  that  even  as 
late  as  1849,  Card  well,  in  the  third  edition  of  his  His- 
tory of  Conferences,  speaks  as  if  he  knew  nothing  of  the 
whereabouts  of  the  record.  In  1854  the  manuscript 
minutes  of  the  Commission's  proceedings  were  discov- 
ered in  the  Library  of  Lambeth  Palace,  and  by  order  of 
Parliament  printed  as  a  Blue-book.      The  same  docu- 


50  A    SHORT    HISTORY    OF 

ment  has  also  been  published  in  a  more  readable  form 
by  Bagster.  One  rises  from  the  perusal  of  this  Broad 
Church  Prayer  Book — for  such,  perhaps,  Tillotson's  at- 
tempt may  not  unfairly  be  called — profoundly  thankful 
that  the  promoters  of  it  were  not  suffered  to  succeed. 
The  Preface  to  our  American  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
refers  to  this  attempted  review  of  1689  "as  a  great  and 
good  work."  But  the  greatness  and  the  goodness  must 
have  lain  in  the  motive,  for  one  fails  to  discern  them 
either  in  the  matter  or  in  the  manner  of  what  was 
recommended. 

Even  Macaulay,  Whig  that  he  is,  fails  not  to  put  on 
record  his  condemnation  of  the  literary  violence  which 
the  Prayer  Book  so  narrowly  escaped  at  the  hands  of 
the  Royal  Commission  of  1689.  Terseness  was  not  the 
special  excellency  of  Macaulay's  own  style,  yet  even  he 
resented  Bishop  Patrick's  notion  that  the  Collects  could 
be  improved  by  amplification.  One  of  the  few  really 
good  suggestions  made  by  the  Commissioners  was  that 
of  using  the  Beatitudes  in  the  Office  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion as  an  alternate  for  the  Decalogue.  There  are 
certain  festivals  of  the  Christian  year  when  such  a  sub- 
stitution would  be  most  timely  and  refreshing. 

We  make  a  leap  now  of  just  a  hundred  years.  From 
1689  we  pass  to  1789,  and  find  ourselves  in  the  city  of 
Philadelphia,  at  a  convention  assembled  for  the  purpose 
of  framing  a  constitution  and  setting  forth  a  liturgy 
for  a  body  of  Christians  destined  to  be  known  as  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America.  During  the*  interval  between  the  issue  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Ratification  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  people  in  this 


THE    BOOK   OP   COMMON   PRAYER.  51 

country  who  had  been  brought  up  in  the  communion  of 
the  Church  of  England  found  themselves  ecclesiastically 
in  a  very  delicate  position  indeed.  As  colonists  they 
had  been  canonically  under  the  spiritual  jurisdiction 
of  the  Bishop  of  London,  a  somewhat  remote  dio- 
cesan. But  with  this  Episcopal  bond  broken  and 
no  new  one  formed,  they  seemed  to  be  in  a  peculiar 
sense  adrift.  It  does  not  fall  to  me  to  narrate  the 
steps  that  led  to  the  final  establishment  of  the  episco- 
pacy upon  a  sure  foundation,  nor  yet  to  trace  the 
process  through  which  the  Church's  legislative  system 
came  gradually  to  its  completion.  Our  interest  is  a 
liturgical  one,  and  our  subject  matter  the  evolution  of 
the  Prayer  Book.  I  say  nothing,  therefore,  of  other 
matters  that  were  debated  in  the  Convention  of  1789, 
but  shall  propose  instead  that  we  confine  ourselves  to 
what  was  said  and  done  about  the  Prayer  Book.  In 
order,  however,  fully  to  appreciate  the  situation  we 
must  go  back  a  little.  In  a  half-formal  and  half- 
informal  fashion  there  had  come  into  existence,  four 
years  before  this  Convention  of  1789  assembled,  an 
American  Liturgy  now  known  by  the  name  of  The 
Proposed  Book.  It  had  been  compiled  on  the  basis 
of  the  English  Prayer  Book  by  a  Committee  of  three 
eminent  clergymen,  Dr.  White  of  Pennsylvania,  Dr. 
William  Smith  of  Maryland,  and  Dr.  Wharton  of  Dela- 
ware. Precisely  what  measure  of  acceptance  this  book 
enjoyed,  or  to  what  extent  it  came  actually  into  use,  are 
difficult,  perhaps  hopeless  questions. 

What  we  know  for  certain  is  that  the  public  opinion 
of  the  greater  number  of  Churchmen  rejected  it  as  in- 
adequate  and    unsatisfactory.      In   the  Convention  of 


52  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF 

1789  The  Proposed  Booh  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
seriously  considered  in  open  debate  at  all,  though 
doubtless  there  was  much  talk  about  it,  much  contro- 
versy over  its  merits  and  demerits  at  Philadelphia 
dinner-tables  and  elsewhere  while  the  session  was  in 
progress. 

The  truth  is,  the  changes  set  forth  in  The  Proposed 
Book  were  too  sweeping  to  commend  themselves  to 
the  sober  second-thought  of  men  whose  blood  still 
showed  the  tincture  of  English  conservatism.  Possibly 
also  some  old  flames  of  Tory  resentment  were  rekindled, 
here  and  there,  by  the  prominence  given  in  the  book  to 
a  form  of  public  thanksgiving  for  the  Fourth  of  July. 
There  were  Churchmen  doubtless  at  that  day  who 
failed  duly  to  appreciate  what  were  called  in  the  title  of 
the  office,  "  the  inestimable  blessings  of  Religious  and 
Civil  Liberty."  Others  again  may  have  been  offended 
by  the  treatment  measured  out  to  the  Psalter,  which 
was  portioned  into  thirty  selections  of  two  parts  each, 
with  the  Benedicite  added  at  the  end,  to  be  used, 
if  desired,  on  the  thirt3T-first  day  of  any  month. 
Another  somewhat  crude  and  unliturgical  device  was 
the  running  together  without  break  Of  the  Morning 
Prayer  and  the  Litany. 

I  speak  of  blemishes,  but  The  Proposed  Book  had  its 
excellences  also.  Just  at  present  it  is  the  fashion  in 
Anglican  circles  to  heap  ridicule  and  contempt  on  The 
Proposed  Book  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  real  demerits. 
Somehow  it  is  thought  to  compromise  us  with  the 
English  by  showing  up  our  ecclesiastical  ancestors  in  an 
unfavorable  light  as  unlearned  and  ignorant  men.  It  is 
treated  as  people  will  sometimes  treat  an  old  family 


THE   BOOK   OF   COMMON   PRAYER.  53 

portrait  of  a  forebear,  who  in  his  day  was  under  a 
cloud,  mismanaged  trust  funds,  or  made  money  in  the 
slave  trade.  Thus  a  grave  historiographer  by  way  of 
speaking  comfortably  on  this  score,  assures  us  that  the 
volume  "  speedily  sunk  into  obscurity,"  becoming  one 
of  the  rarest  of  the  books  illustrative  of  our  ecclesiasti- 
cal annals. 

And  yet,  curiously  enough,  The  Proposed  Booh  was 
in  some  points  more  "  churchly,"  using  the  word  in  a 
sense  expressive  of  liturgical  accuracy,  than  the  book 
finally  adopted.  In  the  Morning  Prayer  it  has  the 
Venite  in  full  and  not  abridged.  The  Benedictus  it 
also  gives  entire.  A  single  form  of  Absolution  is  sup- 
plied. The  versicles  following  upon  the  Creed  are  more 
numerous  than  ours.  In  the  Evening  Prayer  the  great 
Gospel  Hymns,  the  Magnificat  and  the  Nunc  dimittis, 
stand  in  the  places  to  which  we  with  tardy  justice  have 
only  just  restored  them. 

Again,  if  we  consider  those  features  of  The  Proposed 
Book  that  were  retained  and  made  part  of  the  Liturgy 
in  1789,  we  shall  have  further  reason  to  refrain  from 
wholesale  condemnation  of  this  tentative  work.  For 
example,  we  owe  the  two  opening  sentences  of  Morning 
Prayer,  "  The  Lord  is  in  his  holy  temple  "  and  "  From 
the  rising  of  the  sun,"  to  The  Proposed  Book,  and  also 
the  special  form  for  Thanksgiving  Day.  And  yet,  on 
the  whole,  the  Convention  of  1789  acted  most  wisely  in 
determining  that  it  would  make  the  Prayer  Book  of  the 
Church  of  England,  rather  than  The  Proposed  Book,  the 
real  basis  of  revision.  It  did  so,  and  as  a  result  we  have 
what  has  served  us  so  well  during  the  first  century  of 
our  national   life — the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and 


54  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF 

Administration  of  the  Sacraments  and  other  rites  and 
ceremonies  of  the  Church  according  to  the  use  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America.  The  points  wherein  the  American  Prayer 
Book  differs  from  the  Prayer  Book  of  the  Church  of 
England  are  too  numerous  to  be  catalogued  in  full. 
"They  will  appear,"  says  the  Preface  (a  composition 
borrowed,  by  the  way,  almost  wholly  from  The  Proposed 
Book),  "  and,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  the  reasons  of  them  also, 
upon  a  comparison  of  this  with  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  of  the  Church  of  England. 

The  most  important  differences  are  the  following  : 
The  permissive  use  of  "  Selections  of  Psalms  in  place  of 
the  Psalms  appointed  for  the  day  of  the  month."  This 
was  doubtless  suggested  by  the  wholesale  transforma- 
tion of  the  Psalter  in  The  Proposed  Book  into  a  series  of 
selections. 

The  permitted  shortening  of  the  Litany  is  an  American 
feature. 

A  number  of  the  special  prayers,  as,  for  example,  the 
prayer  for  a  sick  person,  that  for  persons  going  to  sea, 
the  thanksgivings  for  a  recovery  and  for  a  safe  return, 
all  these  are  peculiar  to  the  American  use.  Extensive 
alterations  were  made  in  the  Marriage  Service  and  cer- 
tain greatly  needed  ones  in  the  Burial  Office.  The  two 
most  noteworthy  differences,  however,  are  the  omission 
from  our  Prayer  Book  of  the  so-called  Athanasian  Creed, 
and  the  insertion  in  it  of  that  part  of  the  Consecration 
Prayer  in  the  Communion  Office  known  as  the  Invoca- 
tion. The  engrafting  of  this  latter  feature  we  owe  to 
the  influence  of  Bishop  Seabury,  who  by  this  addition 
not  only  assimilated  the  language  of  our  liturgy  more 


THE    BOOK    OF    COMMON   PRAYER.  55 

closely  to  that  of  the  ancient  formularies  of  the  Oriental 
Church,  but  also  insured  our  being  kept  reminded  of  the 
truly  spiritual  character  of  Holy  Communion.  "It  is 
the  spirit  that  quickeneth,"  this  Invocation  seems  to  say; 
"  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing."  Quite  in  line  with  this 
was  the  alteration  made  at  the  same  time  in  the  language 
of  the  Catechism.  "The  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ," 
says  the  English  Book,  "  which  are  verily  and  indeed 
taken  and  received  by  the  faithful  in  the  Lord's  Supper." 

"The  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,"  says  the  American 
Book,  "  which  are  spiritually  taken  and  received  by  the 
faithful  in  the  Lord's  Supper." 

Many  verbal  changes  are  to  be  found  scattered  here 
and  there  through  the  book,  some  of  them  for  the 
better,  some,  perhaps,  for  the  worse.  The  prevailing 
purpose  seems  to  have  been  to  expunge  all  obsolete 
words  and  phrases  while  dealing  tenderly  with  obsoles- 
cent ones.  In  this  course,  however,  the  revisers  were 
by  no  means  always  and  everywhere  consistent. 

"  Prevent,"  in  the  sense  of  "  anticipate,"  is  altered  in 
some  places  but  left  unchanged  in  others.  In  the  Visi- 
tation of  Prisoners,  an  office  borrowed  from  the  Irish 
Prayer  Book,  the  thoroughly  obsolete  expression,  "  As 
you  tender,"  in  the  sense  of  "  as  you  value,"  the  salva- 
tion of  your  soul,  is  retained. 

From  the  Psalter  has  disappeared  in  the  American 
Book  "Thou  tellest  my  Sittings,"  although  why  this 
particular  archaism  should  have  been  selected  for  ban- 
ishment and  a  hundred  others  spared,  it  is  not  easy  to 
understand. 

Perhaps  some  sudden  impatience  seized  the  reviser, 
like  that  which  moved  Bishop  Wren,  while  annotating 


56  A   SHORT    HISTORY   OF 

his  Prayer  Book,  to  write  on  the  margin  of  the  calendar 
for  August,  "  Out  with  *  dog  days '  from  among  the 
saints." 

Considering  what  a  bond  of  unity  the  Lord's  Prayer 
appears  to  be  becoming  among  all  English-speaking 
worshippers,  it  is,  perhaps,  to  be  regretted  that  our 
revisers  changed  the  wording  of  it  in  two  or  three 
places.  The  excision  of  "  Lighten  our  darkness  "  must 
probably  be  attributed  to  the  prosaic  matter-of-fact 
temper  which  had  possession  of  everybody  and  every- 
thing during  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  Ordinal,  the  Articles,  the  Consecration  of 
Churches,  and  the  Institution  of  Ministers  made  no 
part  of  the  Prayer  Book  as  it  was  set  forth  in  1789  ;  nor 
do  they,  even  now,  strictly  speaking,  make  a  part  of  it, 
although  in  the  matter  of  binding  force  and  legal 
authority  they  are  on  the  same  footing. 

The  Ordinal  and  Articles  are  substantially  identical 
with  the  English  Ordinal  and  Articles,  save  in  the 
matter  of  a  reference  to  the  Athanasian  Creed  and 
several  references  to  the  connection  of  Church  and  State. 
The  Consecration  of  Churches  and  the  Institution  of 
Ministers  are  offices  distinctively  American.  If  I  add 
that  the  American  Book  drops  out  of  the  Visitation  of 
the  Sick  a  form  of  private  absolution,  and  greatly 
modifies  the  service  for  Ash-Wednesday,  we  shall  have 
made  our  survey  of  differences  tolerably,  though  by  no 
means  exhaustively  complete. 

And  now  what  is  the  lesson  taught  us  by  the  history 
of  the  Prayer  Book?  Homiletical  as  the  question 
sounds,  it  is  worth  asking. 

We  have  reviewed  rapidly,  but  not  carelessly,  the 


THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER.  57 

vicissitudes  of  the  book's  wonderful  career,  and  we  ought 
to  be  in  a  position  to  draw  some  sort  of  instructive 
inference  from  it  all.  Well,  one  thing  taught  us  is  this, 
the  singular  power  of  survival  that  lives  in  gracious 
words.  They  wondered  at  the  "  gracious  words  which 
proceeded  out  of  His  mouth,"  and  because  they  wondered 
at  them  they  treasured  them  up. 

Kind  words,  says  the  child's  hymn,  can.  never  die  ; 
neither  can  kindly  words,  and  kindly  in  the  deepest  sense 
are  many,  many  of  the  words  of  the  Common  Prayer ; 
they  touch  that  which  is  most  catholic  in  us,  that  which 
strongly  links  us  to  our  kind.  There  is  that  in  some  of 
the  Collects  which  as  it  has  lasted  since  the  days  when 
Roman  emperors  were  sitting  on  their  thrones,  so  will 
it  last  while  man  continues  what  he  is,  a  praying 
creature. 

Another  thing  taught  us  by  the  Prayer  Book's  history 
is  the  duty  of  being  forever  on  our  guard  in  the  religious 
life  against  "the  falsehood  of  extremes." 

The  emancipated  thinkers  who  account  all  standards 
of  belief  to  be  no  better  than  dungeon  walls,  scoff  at 
thjs  feature  of  the  Anglican  character  with  much  bitter- 
ness. "  Your  Church  is  a  Church  of  compromises,"  they 
say,  "and  your  boasted  Via  media  only  a  coward's  path, 
the  poor  refuge  of  the  man  who  dares  not  walk  in  the 
open."  But  when  we  see  this  Prayer  Book  condemned 
for  being  what  it  is  by  Bloody  Mary,  and  then  again 
condemned  for  being  what  it  is  by  the  Long  Parliament, 
the  thought  occurs  to  us  that  possibly  there  is  enshrined 
in  this  much-persecuted  volume  a  truth  larger  than  the 
Romanist  is  willing  to  tolerate,  or  the  Puritan  generous 
enough  to  apprehend. 


58  THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER. 

A  third  important  lesson  is  that  we  are  not  to  con- 
found revision  with  ruin,  or  to  suppose  that  because  a 
book  is  marvellously  good  it  cannot  conceivably  be 
bettered.  Each  accomplished  revision  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  has  been  a  distinct  step  in  advance. 
If  God  in  his  wise  providence  suffered  an  excellent 
growth  of  devotion  to  spring  up  out  of  the  soil  of 
England  in  the  days  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  and,  after 
many  years,  determined  that  like  a  vine  out  of  Egypt  it 
should  be  brought  across  the  sea  and  given  root  on  these 
shores,  we  need  not  fear  that  we  are  about  to  lose  utterly 
our  pleasant  plant  if  we  notice  that  the  twigs  and 
leaves  are  adapting  themselves  to  the  climate  and  the 
atmosphere  of  the  new  dwelling-place.  The  life  within 
the  vine  remains  what  it  always  was.  The  growth 
means  health.  The  power  of  adaptation  is  the  guarantee 
of  a  perpetual  youth. 


REVISION   OF   THE   AMERICAN   COMMON 
PRAYER. 


REVISION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  COMMON 
PRAYER.* 

The  revision  of  long  established  formularies  of  public 
worship  is,  as  it  ought  to  be,  a  matter  compassed  about 
with  obstacles  many  and  great.  A  wise  doubtfulness 
prompts  conservative  minds  to  throw  every  mover  for 
change  upon  the  defensive,  when  liturgical  interests  are 
at  stake.  So  many  men  are  born  into  the  world  with  a 
native  disposition  to  tamper  with  and  tinker  all  settled 
things,  and  so  many  more  become  persuaded,  as  time 
goes  on,  of  a  personal  "  mission  "  to  pull  down  and  re- 
make whatever  has  been  once  built  up,  esteeming  life  a 
failure  unless  they  have  contrived  to  build  each  his  own 
monument  upon  a  clearing,  that  lovers  of  the  old  ways 
are  sometimes  compelled  in  sheer  self-defence  to  put  on 
the  appearance  of  being  more  obstinately  set  against 
change  than  they  really  are.  It  ought  not  to  be  abso- 
lutely impossible  to  alter  a  national  hand-book  of  worship 
(which  is  what  any  manual  calling  itself  a  Common 
Prayer  must  aspire  to  become),  but  it  is  well  that  it 
should  be  all  but  impossible  to  do  so.  Logically  it 
might  seem  as  if  the  possession  of  a  power  to  make 
involved  a  continuance  of  power  to  remake  ;  and  so  it 
does,  to  a  certain  extent,  but  only  to  a  certain  extent. 
Living  organisms  cannot  be  remodelled  with  the  same 
freedom  as  dead  matter.     A  solemnity  hangs  about  the 

*  First  printed  in  the  American  Church  Beview,  April,  1881. 

61 


62  BE  VISION   OF   THE 

moment  of  birth  that  attaches  to  no  other  crisis  in  a 
man's  life  until  death  comes.  Similarly  there  are  cer- 
tain features  which  the  founders  of  institutions,  the  first 
makers  of  organic  law,  imprint  lastingly  upon  their 
work.  We  may  destroy  the  living  thing  so  brought  to 
birth  ;  to  kill  is  always  possible  ;  but  only  by  very 
gradual  and  plastic  methods  can  we  hope  in  any  meas- 
ure to  reconstruct  the  actual  embodiment  of  life  once 
achieved.  The  men  of  1789  had  us  in  their  power, 
even  as  the  men  of  1549  bad  had  both  them  and  us.  In 
every  creative  epoch  many  things  are  settled  by  which 
unborn  generations  will  be  bound.* 

It  may  be  urged  that  this  is  an  argument  against 
adopting  liturgies  in  the  first  instance  as  vehicles  of 
worship  ;  and  such  undoubtedly  it  is  in  so  far  forth  as 
immobility  ought  in  such  matters  to  be  reckoned  a  dis- 
advantage. But  we  are  bound  to  take  into  account  the 
gain  which  comes  with  immobility  as  well  as  the  draw- 
backs. We  must  consider  how  large  a  proportion  of 
the  reverence  which  the  great  institutes  of  human  life 
exact  from  us  is  due  to  the  fixity  of  the  things  them- 
selves. Mont  Blanc  loses  nothing  of  its  hold  upon  our 
admiration  because  we  always  find  it  in  the  same  place. 

*Much  confusion  of  thought  and  speech  in  connection  with 
our  ecclesiastical  legislation  grows  out  of  not  keeping  in  mind  the 
fact  that  here  in  America  the  organic  genetic  law  of  the  Church, 
as  well  as  of  the  State,  is  in  writing,  and  compacted  into  definite 
propositions.  We  draw,  that  is  to  say,  a  far  sharper  distinction 
than  it  is  possible  to  do  in  England  between  what  is  constitutional 
and  what  is  simply  statutory.  There  is  no  function  of  our 
General  Convention  that  answers  to  the  "omnipotence  of  Parlia- 
ment." This  creative  faculty  was  vacated  once  for  all  at  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution. 


AMERICAN    COMMON    PRAYER.  63 

Men  like  to  feel  that  there  is  something  in  the  world 
stronger  than  the  individual  will,  stronger  simply  be- 
cause it  expresses  the  settled  common-sense  of  many  as 
to  what  is  fitting  and  right  in  contrast  with  the  whim 
of  one.  Lawyers,  as  a  class,  are  almost  as  conservative 
as  ecclesiastics,  and  for  the  very  reason  that  they  also 
are  charged  with  the  custody  of  established  forms  which 
it  is  important  that  men  should  reverence.  Laws  affect- 
ing the  tenure  of  property,  the  binding  force  of  con- 
tracts, the  stability  of  the  marriage  relation,  not  only 
cannot  be  lightly  altered,  the  very  phraseology  in  which 
they  are  couched  must  be  carefully  handled,  for  fear  lest 
with  the  passing  away  of  the  form  something  of  the 
substance  go  also. 

Moreover,  the  affections  of  men  fasten  themselves  very 
tenaciously  to  such  a  trellis  as  a  liturgy  affords.  The 
love  for  "the  old  words  and  the  old  tunes"  against 
which  all  innovators  in  hymnody,  however  deserving, 
have  to  do  battle,  asserts  itself  under  the  form  of  love 
for  the  old  prayers  with  ten-fold  vehemence.  An  im- 
mense fund  of  latent  heat  smoulders  beneath  the  maxim, 
"Let  the  ancient  customs  prevail";  and  few  of  the  vic- 
tories achieved  by  the  papacy  are  so  startling  as  those 
that  have  resulted  in  the  displacement  of  the  liturgical 
uses  of  local  Churches,  that  of  Paris,  for  example,  by  the 
Roman  rite. 

But  true  principles,  as  we  are  often  reminded,  become 
falsehoods  when  shoved  across  the  line  of  proper  meas- 
ure. The  very  cycles  of  the  astronomers  have  an  end, 
and  the  clock-work  of  the  most  ancient  heavens,  or  at 
least  our  reading  of  it,  calls,  from  time  to  time,  for  read- 
justment.    So  long  as  man  continues  fallible  his  best 


64  Revision  of  the 

intended  workmanship  will  occasionally  demand  such 
alteration  for  the  better  as,  within  the  limits  already 
pointed  out,  may  be  possible. 

Many  signs  of  the  times  suggest  that  the  hour  for  a 
fresh  review  of  the  Anglican  formularies  of  worship  is 
nigh  at  hand.  Some  of  these  tokens  are  written  on  a 
sky  broad  enough  to  cover  the  whole  English-speaking 
race,  others  of  them  are  visible  chiefly  within  our  own 
national  horizon.  With  respect  to  the  English  book, 
Cardwell*  writing  in  1840  and  Freeman  f  in  1855,  con- 
sidered revision,  however  desirable  in  the  abstract,  to 
be  a  thing  utterly  out  of  reach,  not  within  the  circle, 
as  the  parliamentary  phrase  now  runs,  of  "practical 
politics." 

But  it  may  be  fairly  questioned  whether  these  high 
authorities,  were  they  living  to-day,  would  not  concur 
in  the  judgment  of  a  more  recent  writer  when  he  says — 
in  language  which,  mutatis  mutandis,  applies  to  our 
own  case  :  "  The  most  weighty  plea  in  favor  of  timely 
inquiry  into  the  subject  is  that  the  process  of  revision 
is  actually  going  on  piecemeal,  and  with  no  very  intel- 
ligent survey  of  the  bearings  as  a  preliminary  to  any 
one  instalment.  The  New  Lectionary  of  1871,  the 
Shortened  Services  Act,  the  debates  in  the  Convocation 
of  Canterbury  on  rubrical  amendments,  none  of  them 
marked  by  any  sufficient  care  or  knowledge,  and  all 
fraught  with  at  least  the  possibility  of  serious  conse- 
quence, are  examples  of  formal  and  recognized  inroads 
on  the  Act  of  Uniformity  ;  while  such  practical  though 
unauthorized  additions  to  the  scanty  group  of  Anglican 

*  Conferences,  p.  461. 

f  Principles  of  Divine  Service,  vol.  i.  p.  390. 


AMERICAN    COMMON    PRAYER.  65 

formularies  as  the  Three  Hours'  Devotion,  Harvest 
Thanksgivings,  Public  Institution  of  Incumbents,  Ordi- 
nation of  Readers  and  Deaconesses,  and  Children's  Ser- 
vices prove  incontestably  that  the  narrow  limits  of  the 
Common  Prayer  Book  are  no  longer  adequate  for  the 
spiritual  needs  of  the  Church  of  England.    .    . 

"  It  is  evident,  then,  that  contented  acquiescence  with 
the  old  state  of  things  already  belongs  to  the  past,  and 
that  a  return  to  it  is  impossible.  We  must  perforce 
advance,  for  good  or  ill,  in  the  path  of  revision,  and 
cannot  even  materially  slacken  the  pace  nor  defer  the 
crisis.  One  choice,  however,  is  left  in  our  power,  and 
that  is  the  most  important  of  all,  namely,  the  direction 
which  revision  shall  take — that  of  conservative  and 
recuperative  addition,  or  that  of  further  evisceration, 
ceremonial  or  devotional."* 

A  measure  looking  in  the  direction  towards  which  this 
reviewer  points  was  actually  passed  by  the  General  Con- 
vention of  our  own  Church  at  its  late  session  in  October, 
1880. 

The  wording  of  the  Resolution  referred  to  was  as 
follows  : 

"  Resolved:  That  a  Joint  Committee,  to  consist  of 
seven  bishops,  seven  presbyters,  and  seven  laymen  be 
appointed  to  consider  and  report  to  the  next  General 
Convention  whether,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  this 
Church  is  soon  to  enter  upon  the  second  century  of  its 
organized  existence  in  this  country,  the  changed  condi- 
tions of  the  national  life  do  not  demand  certain  altera- 
tions in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  in  the  direction 

*  Church  Quarterly  Review,  London,  October,  1876. 


66  REVISION    OF    THE 

of  liturgical   enrichment   and   increased   flexibility   of 
use."  * 

In  the  present  article  the  writer  proposes  to  inquire, 
in  connection  with  this  measure  : 

(1)  What  motives  may  fairly  be  supposed  to  have 
actuated  the  Convention  in  allowing  so  important  an 
initiatory  step  to  be  taken  ? 

(2)  What  measure  of  authority  was  conferred  on 
and  what  scope  given  to  the  Joint  Committee  then  con- 
stituted ? 

(3)  What  reasons  exist  for  considering  the  present  a 
happy  moment  to  attempt  liturgical  revision,  within 
certain  limits,  should  such  a  thing  be  determined  upon  ? 

(4)  What  serious  difficulties  and  obstacles  are  likely 
to  be  encountered  in  Committee,  in  Convention,  and  in 
the  Church  at  large  ? 

(5)  What  particular  improvements  and  adjustments 
of  our  existing  system  would  be,  in  point  of  fact,  best 
worth  the  effort  necessary  to  secure  them  ? 

I.  The  interpretation  of  motives,  difficult  enough  in 
the  case  of  individuals,  becomes  mere  guess-work  when 
the  action  under  analysis  is  that  of  a  large  body  of 
men.  Which  one  of  many  considerations  urged  upon 
the  Convention  carried  with  it  the  supreme  weight  of 
persuasion  in  this  particular  instance  it  is  impossible  to 
say.  Two  or  three  arguments,  however,  from  their 
frequent  reappearance   in  the   debate    may   fairly    be 

*  The  votes  of  the  House  of  Bishops  are  not  reported  numeri- 
cally. In  the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies  the  vote  stood 
as  follows  :  "Of  the  Clergy  there  were  43  Dioceses  represented— 
Ayes,  33 ;  nays,  9  ;  divided,  1.  Of  the  Laity  there  were  35  Dio- 
ceses represented— Ayes,  20  ;  nays,  11 ;  divided,  4."— Journal  of 
Convention  of  1880,  p.  152. 


AMERICAN    COMMON    PRAYER.  6V 

judged  to  have  exercised  a  controlling  influence.  One 
of  these  was  hinted  at  in  the  language  of  the  resolution 
itself,  namely,  the  call  for  revision  that  has  grown 
out  of  "the  changed  conditions  of  the  national  life." 
Shrewd  and  far-seeing  as  were  William  White  and  his 
coadjutors  in  their  forecast  of  nineteenth  century  needs 
made  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Peace  of  Versailles, 
they  would  have  been  more  than  human  had  they  suc- 
ceeded in  anticipating  all  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  con- 
sequences destined  to  flow  from  that  memorable  event. 
Certainly  it  ought  not  to  be  held  strange  that  this 
"  new  America  "  of  ours,  with  its  enormously  multiplied 
territory,  its  conglomerate  of  races,  its  novel  forms  of 
association,  its  multiplicity  of  industries  not  dreamed  of 
a  generation  ago,  should  have  demands  to  make  in  respect 
to  a  better  adaptation  of  ancient  formularies  to  present 
wants,  such  as  thoughtful  people  count  both  reasonable 
and  cogent.  That  a  Prayer  Book  revised  primarily  for 
the  use  of  a  half -proscribed  Church  planted  here  and 
there  along  a  sparsely  inhabited  sea-coast,  should  serve 
as  amply  as  it  does  the  purposes  of  a  population  now 
swollen  from  four  millions  to  fifty,  and  covering  the 
whole  breadth  of  the  continent,  is  marvel  enough  ;  to 
assert  for  the  book  entire  adequacy  to  meet  these  altered 
circumstances  is  a  mistake.  "New  time,  new  favors, 
and  new  joys,"  so  a  familiar  hymn  affirms,  "  do  a  new 
song  require."  We  have  conceded  the  principle  so  far 
as  psalmody  is  concerned,  why  not  apply  it  to  the  service 
of  prayer  as  well  as  to  that  of  praise,  and  in  addition  to 
our  new  hymns  secure  also  such  new  intercessions  and 
new  thanksgivings  as  the  needs  of  to-day  suggest  ? 
The  reference   in  the  resolution  to  the  approaching 


68  REVISION   OF   THE 

completion  of  the  century  has  since  been  playfully- 
characterized  as  a  bit  of  "  sentirnentalism."  *  The  criti- 
cism would  be  entirely  just  if  the  mere  recurrence  of  the 
centennial  anniversary  were  the  point  chiefly  emphasized. 
But  when  a  century  closes  as  this  one  of  ours  has  done 
with  a  great  social  revolution  whereby  "  all  estates  of 
men  "  have  been  more  or  less  affected,  the  proposal  to 
signalize  entrance  upon  a  fresh  stretch  of  national  life 
by  making  devotional  preparation  for  it  is  something 
better  than  a  pretty  conceit  ;  there  is  a  serious  reason- 
ableness in  it.f 

Every  revision  of  the  Common  Prayer  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  there  have  been  four  of  them  since 
Edward's  First  Book  was  put  in  print,  has  taken  place 
at  some  important  era  of  transition  in  the  national  life  : 
and  conversely  it  may  be  said  that  every  civil  crisis, 
with  a  single  exception,  has  left  its  mark  upon  the 
formularies. 

To  one  who  argues  that  because  we  in  this  country  are 
evidently  entering  upon  a  new  phase  of  the  national  life 
we  ought   similarly  to   re-enforce    and    readjust   our 

*  Church  Eclectic  for  November,  1880. 

f  Remembering  the  deluge  of  "centennial"  rhetoric  let  loose 
upon  the  country  five  years  ago,  another  critic  may  well  feel  justi- 
fied in  finding  in  the  language  of  the  resolution  what  he  considers 
"  an  unnecessary  raison  d'etre."  But  it  is  just  possible  that  cen- 
tennial changes  rest  on  a  basis  of  genuine  cause  and  effect  quite 
independent  of  the  decimal  system.  A  century  covers  the  range 
of  three  generations,  and  the  generation  is  a  natural,  not  an  arbi- 
trary division  of  time.  What  the  grandfather  practises  the  son 
criticises  and  the  grandson  amends.  This  at  least  ought  to  com- 
mend itself  to  the  consideration  of  the  lovers  of  mystical  numbers 
and  "periodic  laws." 


American  common  prayer.  69 

service-book,  it  is  no  sufficient  reply  to  urge  the  severance 
effected  here  between  Church  and  State.  The  fact  that 
ours  is  a  non-established  Church  does  not  make  her 
wholly  unresponsive  to  the  shocks  of  change  that  touch 
the  civil  fabric.  In  so  far  as  a  political  renewal  alters 
the  social  grading  of  society,  bringing  in  education,  for 
instance,  where  before  it  was  not,  or  suddenly  develop- 
ing new  forms  of  industrial  activity,  the  Church, 
whether  established  or  not,  is  in  duty  bound  to  take  cog- 
nizance of  the  fresh  field  of  duty  thus  suddenly  thrust 
upon  her,  and  to  prepare  herself  accordingly. 

In  the  Preface  added  to  the  English  Prayer  Book  at 
the  Restoration,  and  commonly  attributed  to  Sanderson, 
"  that  staid  and  well  weighed  man,"  as  Hammond  called 
him,  there  occurs  a  sentence  which,  both  on  account  of 
its  embodying  in  a  few  words  the  whole  philosophy  of 
liturgical  revision  and  because  of  a  certain  practical 
bearing  presently  to  be  pointed  out,  it  is  worth  while,  in 
spite  of  its  familiarity,  to  quote  : 

"  The  particular  forms  of  Divine  worship,  and  the 
rites  and  ceremonies  appointed  to  be  used  therein,  be- 
ing things  in  their  own  nature  indifferent  and  alterable 
and  so  acknowledged,  it  is  but  reasonable,  that  upon 
weighty  and  important  considerations,  according  to  the 
various  exigency  of  times  and  occasions,  such  changes 
and  alterations  should  be  made  therein,  as  to  those  that 
are  in  place  of  authority  should  from  time  to  time  seem 
either  necessary  or  expedient." 

Contemporaneously  with  this  utterance  there  eame 
into  the  Prayer  Book,  as  a  direct  consequence  of  the 
enormous  enlargement  of  the  naval  and  commercial 
marine  that  had  taken  place  under  the  Commonwealth, 


10  REVISION   OF   THE 

the  "Forms  of  Prayer  to  be  used  at  Sea."  Here  was  a 
wise  and  right-minded  recognition  of  a  new  want  that 
had  sprung  up  with  a  new  time,  a  want  which  jealousy 
of  the  Puritans  who  had  built  up  the  naval  supremacy 
did  not  prevent  the  Caroline  bishops  from  meeting. 
But  the  change  that  passed  on  England  during  five 
years  of  Cromwell  was  as  nothing  compared  with  the 
transformation  of  America  under  ninety -five  years  of 
the  federal  constitution.  Take  a  single  illustration. 
The  year  1789,  the  date  of  the  Ratification  of  the 
American  Prayer  Book,  saw  sea-island  cotton  first  planted 
in  the  United  States,  and  it  was  about  that  time  that  up- 
land cotton  also  began  to  be  cultivated  for  home  and 
foreign  use.  As  the  eifect  of  this  scarcely  noticed  ex- 
periment there  straightway  sprang  up  an  industry,  North 
and  South,  which  has  been  to  our  country  almost  what 
her  shipping  interest  is  to  Great  Britain.  Bishop 
White  and  his  associates  were  not  to  blame  for  failure 
to  provide  bread  that  all  this  unanticipated  multitude  of 
toilers  should  eat.  And  yet  a  failure  there  has  been. 
No  one  who  has  not  labored  at  the  task  of  trying  to 
commend  the  Church  of  the  Prayer  Book  to  the  working 
class,  as  it  is  represented  in  our  large  manufacturing 
towns,  can  know  how  lamentable  that  failure  is.  We 
gather  in  the  rich  and  the  poor,  but  the  great  middle 
class  that  makes  the  staple  and  the  strength  of  American 
society  stands  aloof. 

Nowhere  in  this  country,  for  instance,  has  the  Church 
had  a  better  opportunity  to  show  what  it  could  do  for 
American  people  than  in  the  city  of  Lowell,  where  cot- 
ton spinning  had  its  first  large  development.  It  was  a 
virgin  soil  :  the  Episcopal  Church,  as  rarely  happens, 


AMEBIC  AN   COMMON   PEAYEE.  71 

was  earliest  on  the  ground  :  and  not  only  so,  but  it 
enjoyed  for  some  years  the  friendly  protection  of  the 
proprietors  of  the  new  settlement,  almost  a  religious 
monopoly — was,  in  fact,  an  ecclesiastical  preserve. 
Moreover,  this  beginning  antedated  the  Irish  occupation 
by  many  years,  at  least  so  far  as  skilled  labor  was  con- 
cerned, for  during  a  considerable  period  the  operatives 
in  the  mills  were  of  native  New  England  stock,  the  best 
possible  material  to  be  made  over  into  churchmen  and 
churchwomen.  And  yet  notwithstanding  all  this,  and 
notwithstanding  the  patient  and  unintermitted  toil 
through  more  than  fifty  years  of  perhaps  the  most  la- 
borious parish  priest  on  the  American  clergy  list,  the 
•Episcopal  Church  has  to-day  but  a  comparatively  slen- 
der hold  upon  the  affections  and  loyalty  of  the  people  of 
this  largest  of  the  manufacturing  cities  of  New  Eng- 
land. 

A  similar  failure  to  "reach  the  masses  "  betrays  itself 
in  Worcester  and  Fall  River,  the  two  cities  of  like  char- 
acter that  come  next  in  order  of  population,  for  in  the 
former  of  these  last  named  places  only  about  two  per 
cent,  of  the  inhabitants  have  affiliations  of  any  sort  with 
the  Episcopal  Church. 

It  was  considerations  of  this  sort,  backed  perhaps  by 
memories  of  the  ringing  appeal  sounded  three  years 
before  at  Boston  by  the  Bishop  of  Connecticut,  that 
moved  the  Convention  to  interpret  as  something  better 
than  a  bit  of  sentimentalism  the  invitation  to  look  the 
times  in  the  face,  and  give  the  new  century  its  infant 
baptism. 

But  besides  all  this  there  pressed  upon  the  mind  of 
bishops  and    deputies    a   cumulative  argument    of    a 


12  REVISION   OF   THE 

wholly  different  sort.  The  demand  for  revision  seemed 
to  be  closing  in  upon  the  Church  on  converging  lines. 
It  was  plain  that,  before  long,  hands  of  change  must 
necessarily  be  laid  upon  certain  semi-detached  portions 
of  the  Prayer  Book.  There  was  the  New  Lectionary, 
for  example,  that  would  presently  be  knocking  for 
hospitable  reception  within  the  covers,  and  the  old 
Easter  Tables,  as  they  now  stand,  could  not,  it  was  ob- 
served, last  very  much  longer.  A  new  book,  in  the 
publisher's  sense  of  that  term,  would  soon  have  to  be 
made.  The  sanctity  of  stereotype  plates  must  be  dis- 
turbed. Moreover,  here  was  an  admirable  opportunity 
to  settle  the  wrangle,  now  of  nine  years'  standing,  over 
the  best  way  of  bringing  to  pass  shortened  services  for 
week-day  use.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  intrinsic 
weakness  of  the  driblet  method  of  revision*  had  been 

*  The  real  argument  against  the  "  driblet  method  "  (by  which 
is  meant  the  concession  of  improvement  only  as  it  is  actually  con- 
quered inch  by  inch)  lies  in  what  has  been  already  said  about  the 
undesirability  of  frequent  changes  in  widely  used  formularies  of 
worship. 

It  may  be  true,  as  some  allege,  that  a  revision  of  the  Prayer 
Book  would  shake  the  Church,  but  it  is  more  likely  that  half  a 
dozen  patchings  at  triennial  intervals  would  shatter  it.  After 
twenty  years  of  this  sort  of  piecemeal  revision,  a  variorum  edition 
of  the  Prayer  Book  would  be  a  requisite  of  every  well  furnished 
pew. 

The  late  Convention  has  been  twitted  with  inconsistency  on  the 
score  of  having  negatived  outright  the  proposal  for  a  Commission  to 
overhaul  the  Constitution  of  the  Church  while  consenting  to  send 
the  Prayer  Book  to  a  committee  for  review.  Discernment  would 
be  a  better  word  than  inconsistency,  for  although  on  grounds  of 
pure  theory  the  Constitution  and  the  Prayer  Book  seem  to  stand  in 
corresponding  attitudes  as  respects  methods  of  amendment,  in 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  73 

made  so  abundantly  plain  that  even  its  former  friends 
wisely  refrained  from  all  attempt  to  urge  it,  and  our 
summing  up  of  probable  motives  becomes  approximately 
complete. 

II.  As  to  the  measure  of  authority  conferred  on,  and 
scope  allowed  to  the  Committee  of  Twenty-one,  it  is 
possible  to  speak  with  more  definiteness. 

A  precisian  might  of  course,  were  he  so  disposed,  take 
up  the  ground  that  the  report  of  the  Committee  when 
made  ought  to  be  monosyllabic,  "  Yes  "  or  "  No."  The 
wording  of  the  resolution  admits  of  such  a  construction 
beyond  a  doubt ;  the  Joint  Committee  was  requested  to 
consider  and  report  whether,  etc.,  etc.  But  no  one  who 
listened  to  the  debate  on  the  resolution  could  have  been 
left  in  uncertainty  as  to  the  real  animus  of  the  measure. 
The  thing  intended  to  be  authorized  was  an  experimental 
review,  with  implied  reference  to  a  limited  revision  at 
some  time  future,  in  case  the  fruits  of  the  review  should 
commend  themselves  to  the  mind  of  the  Church. 

practice  the  difference  between  the  two  is  very  wide.  Triennial 
changes  in  the  letter  of  the  Constitution  (and  these  have  often 
been  made)  involve  no  inconvenience  to  anybody,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  that  document  must  of  necessity  be  reprinted  with 
every  fresh  issue  of  the  Journal.  Old  copies  do  not  continue  in 
use,  except  as  books  of  reference,  but  old  Prayer  Books  do  hold 
their  place  in  parish  churches,  and  the  spectacle  of  congregations 
trying  to  worship  in  unison  with  books  some  of  which  contained 
the  reading  of  1880,  others  that  of  1883,  and  still  others  that  of  1886 
would  scarcely  edify.  Theoretically,  let  it  be  freely  granted,  the 
"driblet  method"  of  amendment  is  the  proper  one  for  both 
Prayer  Book  and  Constitution,  but  the  fact  that  the  Convention 
had  eyes  to  see  that  this  was  a  case  to  which  the  maxims  of  pure 
mathematics  did  not  apply  should  be  set  down  to  its  credit, 
rather  than  its  discredit. 


74  REVISION   OF   THE 

A  distinction  must  be  drawn  between  revision  and  re- 
view. Revision  implies  review  as  an  antecedent  step, 
but  review  is  by  no  means  [necessarily  followed  by  re- 
vision. The  English  book  was  reviewed  and  revised  in 
1662;  it  was  reviewed  but  not  revised  in  1689.  Review 
is  tentative  and  advisory;  revision  is  authoritative  and 
final.  In  the  present  instance  not  an  atom  of  power  to 
effect  binding  change  has  been  conveyed.  No  authority 
has  been  given  to  anybody  to  touch  a  line  or  a  letter  of 
the  Prayer  Book  save  in  the  way  of  suggestion  and 
recommendation.  Responsible  action  has  been  held 
wholly  in  reserve. 

Moreover,  even  the  pathway  of  review  was  most 
scrupulously  hedged.  Applying  to  the  resolution  the 
legal  maxim,  expressio  unius  est  exclusio  alterius,  one 
sees  at  a  glance  that  doctrinal  change  is  a  matter  left 
wholly  on  one  side.  The  two  points  to  which  the  Com- 
mittee is  instructed  to  bend  all  its  studies  are  "  liturgical 
enrichment"  and  "increased  flexibility  of  use."  What- 
soever is  more  than  these  is  irrelevant.  Accurate  dis- 
tinguishment  between  such  "  enrichments  "  as  have  and 
such  as  have  not  a  doctrinal  bearing  is,  no  doubt,  a 
delicate  point,  and  must  be  set  down  among  the  difficul- 
ties to  be  encountered.  As  such  it  will  be  considered 
further  on.  For  the  present  the  fact  to  be  noted  is  that 
the  authorized  reviewers  are  both  in  honor  and  in  duty 
bound  to  keep  themselves  absolutely  clear  of  controver- 
sial bias.  The  movement  is  not  a  movement  to  alter 
in  any  slightest  respect  the  dogmatic  teaching  of  the 
Church,  not  a  movement  to  unsettle  foundations,  not  a 
movement  toward  disowning  or  repudiating  our  past, 
but  simply  and  only  an  endeavor  to  make  the  Common 


AMERICAN    COMMON   PRAYER.  75 

Prayer,  if  possible  (and  we  are  far  from  being  sure,  as 
yet,  that  it  is  possible),  a  better  thing  of  its  kind,  more 
comprehensive,  more  elastic,  more  readily  responsive  to 
the  demands  of  all  occasions  and  the  needs  of  "  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men."  Some  who  are  deeply 
persuaded  that  only  by  doctrinal  revision  in  one  direc- 
tion or  another  can  the  Prayer  Book  be  made  thoroughly 
to  commend  itself  to  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  will  esteem  the  measure  of  change  above 
indicated  not  worth  the  effort  indispensable  to  the 
attainment  of  it.  Be  it  so  ;  other  some  there  are  who 
do  think  the  attempt  well  advised  and  who  are  willing 
to  waive  their  own  pet  notions  as  to  possible  doctrinal 
improvements  of  the  book  for  the  sake  of  securing  a 
conse?isus  upon  certain  great  practical  improvements 
which  come  within  the  range  of  things  attainable. 

Certain  it  is  that  any  attempt  of  a  body  of  reviewers 
like  this  to  disturb,  even  by  "  shadowed  hint,"  the  ex- 
isting doctrinal  settlement  under  which  we  are  living 
together,  would  be  resented  by  the  whole  Church. 

There  are  divines  among  us  who  in  the  interest  of  a 
more  sharply  defined  orthodoxy  are  conscientiously  bent 
upon  securing  the  reintroduction  among  our  formularies 
of  the  so-called  Athanasian  Creed. 

Tnere  are  others  who  consider  that  a  more  damaging 
blow  at  the  catholicity  of  our  dogmatic  position  as  a 
Church  could  scarcely  be  dealt. 

Again,  there  are  theologians  who  account  the  Prayer 
Book  to  be  so  thoroughly  saturated  in  all  its  parts 
with  the  sacramental  idea,  that  they  would  account  it 
not  only  a  piece  of  far-seeing  statesmanship,  but  also 
a  perfectly  safe  procedure  to  allow  those  who  chose  to 


76  REVISION    OF    THE 

do  so  to  thank  God  after  a  child's  baptism  for  the 
simple  fact  that  he  had  thereby  been  "  grafted  into  the 
body  of  Christ's  Church." 

But  over  against  these  stand  a  much  larger  number 
who  think  nothing  of  the  sort,  and  who  would  put  up 
with  the  liturgical  shortcomings  of  the  Prayer  Book, 
go  without  "  enrichments  "  for  a  thousand  years,  rather 
than  see  the  single  word  "  regenerate  "  dropped  out  of 
the  post-baptismal  office. 

Sensible  men  not  a  few  are  to  be  found  who  hold  that 
the  incoming  tide  of  host- worship  with  which,  as  they 
conceive,  our  reformed  Church  is  threatened  can  never 
be  stayed  unless  some  carefully  contrived  definition 
inserted  in  the  Prayer  Book  shall  make  impossible  this 
subtile  and  refined  species  of  idolatry.  But  men  no 
whit  less  sensible  laugh  them  in  the  face,  pointing  to 
the  "  black  rubric "  and  its  history  as  evidence  that 
between  the  admitted  doctrine  of  the  real  presence  and 
the  disallowed  tenet  of  transubstantiation  no  impervious 
barrier  of  words  can  possibly  be  run. 

These  illustrations  of  probable  divergence  in  opinion, 
in  case  the  field  of  doctrine  were  once  entered,  might 
be  multiplied.  The  retranslation  of  the  Nicene  Creed 
and  the  more  accurate  punctuation  of  its  sentences  ; 
the  rendering  of  the  word  Sabbath  in  the  Fourth 
Commandment  into  its  English  equivalent  of  Rest  ; 
the  abolition  of  the  curious  misnomer  under  which  we 
go  on  calling  XXXVIII  Articles  XXXIX  ;  the  removal 
from  the  Catechism,  or  else  the  conversion  into  mother 
English  of  that  sad  crux  infantum,  the  answer  to  the 
question,  "  What  desirest  thou  of  God  in  this  prayer?" 
are  a  few  examples  of  less  importance  than  those  previ- 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  11 

ously  cited  ;  and  yet,  in  the  case  of  the  least  of  them, 
it  is  most  unlikely  that  the  advocates  of  change  would 
have  the  show  of  hands  in  their  favor,  so  sensitive  is 
the  mind  of  the  Church  to  anything  that  looks  in  the 
least  degree  like  tampering  with  the  standards  of 
weight  and  measure,  the  shekels  of  the  sanctuary. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  certain  manifest  and 
palpable  instances  of  inaccuracy  and,  more  rarely,  in- 
felicity of  diction  which  the  reviewers  might  very 
properly  take  occasion  to  amend  even  though  such  alter- 
ations could  not  be  classified  by  a  strict  constructionist 
under  either  of  the  two  heads  "  enrichment  "  and  "  flexi- 
bility." In  the  masterly  Report  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  T.  W. 
Coit  to  the  Joint  Committee  appointed  by  the  Conven- 
tion of  1841  to  prepare  a  Standard  Prayer  Book,*  a 
document  of  classical  rank,  there  is  more  than  one  in- 
timation of  the  hope  that  future  reviewers  would  be 
given  a  larger  liberty  in  this  direction  than  he  had  him- 
self enjoyed.  He  chafed,  and  naturally  enough,  under 
the  necessity  of  reprinting  in  a  "  standard  "  book,  evi- 
dent and  acknowledged  solecisms  and  blunders.  "  We 
wanted,"  he  says,  "to  correct  one  ungrammatical  clause 
in  the  Consecration  Prayer  of  the  Communion  Service. 
It  is  in  the  last  sentence  but  one,  at  its  close.  It  should 
be,  not  that  he  may  dwell  in  them  and  they  in  him  ; 
but,  that  he  may  dwell  in  us  and  we  in  him.  The 
prayer  is  made  up  out  of  two  or  three  others  ;  and  any- 
one who  will  examine  the  parts  put  together  will  easily 
see  how  the  thing  was  overlooked.  A  much  greater  error 
was  overlooked  elsewhere,  showing  that  our  American 

*  Reprinted  together  with  a  supplementary  Letter  in  the  Journal 
of  the  Convention  of  1868. 


IS  BE  VISION    OF   THE 

compilers  were  not  sufficiently  aware  of  the  necessity 
which  requires  that  the  Prayer  Book  should  always  be 
consistent  with  itself.  I  allude  to  something  in  the 
office  for  the  Private  Baptism  of  Children.  Suppose  a 
clergyman  to  avail  himself  of  the  license  given  in 
the  Rubric  after  the  certification.  He  will  then  be 
made  to  talk  thus  :  '  As  the  Holy  Gospel  doth  witness 
to  our  comfort,  on  this  wise — Dost  thou  in  the  name  of 
this  child,' "  etc.* 

Other  cases  of  evident  inaccuracy,  besides  those  re- 
ferred to  by  this  eminent  critic,  might  be  cited,  even 
from  the  latest  Standard  Prayer  Book,  that  of  1871.  It  is 
hard,  for  instance,  to  imagine  even  the  veriest  martinet 
in  such  matters  objecting  to  the  redress  of  a  great  wrong 
done  on  page  36  of  the  volume  mentioned,  where  the 
prayer  "  to  be  used  at  the  meetings  of  Convention  "  is 
entered  under  the  general  heading,  "  For  malefactors 
after  condemnation."  Our  ecclesiastical  legislators  have 
doubtless,  like  the  rest  of  us,  "erred  and  strayed"  more 
than  once,  but  to  deal  out  to  them  such  harsh  measure 
as  this  is  cruel. 

A  strange  uncertainty  would  seem  from  the  Rubric 
to  exist  with  reference  to  the  limits  of  the  Litany.  On 
page  554  of  the  Standard  Prayer  Book,  the  words,  "Here 
endeth  the  Litany,"  occur  immediately  after  the  prayer, 
"  We  humbly  beseech  thee,  O  Father,"  while  on  page  31 
the  same  statement  is  placed  immediately  after  the 
minor  benediction. 

These  are  not  faults  for  which  it  could  ever  be  worth 
while  to  revise  a  Prayer  Book,  but  they  are  blemishes 

*  Dr.  Coit's  Letter  of  1868,  also  reprinted  in  Journal  of  that 
year. 


AMERICAN    COMMON   PRAYER.  79 

of  which  the  revisers  of  a  Prayer  Book  ought  to 
take  note. 

It  is  a  graver  matter  to  speak  of  infelicities  of  diction 
in  a  book  so  justly  famous  as  the  Prayer  Book  for  its 
pure  and  wholesome  English.     Wordsworth's  curse  on 

One  who  would  peep  and  botanize 
Upon  his  mother's  grave 

seems,  in  the  judgment  of  many,  fairly  earned  by  the 
critic,  whoever  he  may  be,  who  ventures  to  suggest  that 
in  any  slightest  instance  the  language  of  the  formularies 
might  have  been  more  happily  phrased.  But  there  are 
spots  on  the  sun.  In  the  prayer  already  referred  to, 
that  for  use  "  at  the  meetings  of  Convention,"  the  peti- 
tion, "We  beseech  thee  to  he  present  with  the  council 
of  thy  Church  here  assembled  in  thy  name  and  presence^1 
does  seem  open  to  the  charge  of  tautology  if  nothing 
worse. 

It  would  be  well  if  wherever  the  word  occurs  in  the 
Prayer  Book  in  connection  with  Deity  the  anthropomor- 
phic plural  "  ears  "  could  be  replaced  by  the  symbolic 
singular  "  ear." 

Considering  also  the  great  evil  of  having  in  a  formulary 
of  worship  too  many  things  that  have  to  be  laboriously 
explained,  it  might  be  well  if  in  the  Litany  the  adjective 
"  sudden,"  which  ever  since  Hooker's  day  has  given 
perpetual  occasion  for  cavil,  were  to  yield  to  "  untimely," 
or  some  like  word  more  suggestive  than  "  sudden  "  of 
the  thought  clumsily  expressed  in  the  "  Chapel  Liturgy  " 
by  the  awkward  phrase,  "  death  unprepared  for."  * 

*  See  Book  of  Common  Prayer  according  to  the  use  of  King's 
Chapel,  Boston.   Among  the  rhetorical  crudities  of  this  emasculated 


80  REVISION   OF  THE 

It  must  be  again  remarked  that  these  are  not  points 
for  the  sake  of  which  word -fanciers  would  be  justified 
in  disturbing  an  existing  order  of  things  ;  they  are 
simply  instances  of  lesser  improvements  that  might  very 
properly  accompany  larger  ones,  should  larger  ones  ever 
be  seriously  undertaken. 

With  so  many  pegs  upon  which  controversies  might 
be  hung  staring  us  in  the  face,  can  we  think  of  it  as  at 
all  likely  that  any  considerable  number  of  Churchmen 
assembled  in  committee  (to  say  nothing  of  Convention) 
will  be  able  to  agree  upon  a  common  line  of  action  with 
reference  to  an  amendment  of  the  formularies  ? 

That  is  the  very  point  at  issue,  and  how  it  is  to  be 
decided  only  the  event  can  show.  Certainly  in  the  roll 
of  the  victories  of  charity,  a  favorable  *  result,  were  it 
achieved,  would  stand  exceeding  high. 

This  reflection  naturally  leads  up  to  the  inquiry 
whether  there  is  any  special  reason  to  consider  the 
present  a  happy  moment  to  attempt  within  the  limits 
already  defined  a  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book. 

Prayer  Book  (from  the  title-page  of  which,  by  the  way,  the  definite 
article  has  been  with  praiseworthy  truthfulness  omitted)  few 
things  are  worse  than  the  following  from  the  form  for  the  Burial 
of  Children,  a  piece  of  writing  which  in  point  of  style  would  seem 
to  savor  more  of  the  Lodge  than  of  the  Church  :  "My  brethren, 
what  is  our  life  ?  It  is  as  the  early  dew  of  morning  thatglittereth 
for  a  short  time,  and  then  is  exhaled  to  heaven.  Where  is  the 
beauty  of  childhood  ?  Where  is  [sic]  the  light  of  those  eyes  and 
the  bloom  of  that  countenance  ?"..."  Who  is  young  and  who  is 
old?  Whither  are  we  going  and  what  shall  we  become?  "  And 
yet  the  author  of  this  mawkish  verbiage  probably  fancied  that  he 
was  improving  upon  the  stately  English  of  the  Common  Prayer. 
It  is  a  warning  to  all  would-be  eorichers. 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  81 

III.  The  argument  for  timeliness  has  been,  in  part, 
already  stated.  A  revision  will  be  timely,  if  the  times 
imperatively  demand  it  ;  and  the  main  reasons  for 
thinking  that  they  do  are  before  the  reader.  Some- 
thing, however,  is  still  left  to  be  said  in  evidence  that 
the  movement  now  begun  is  opportune — not  rudely 
thrust  upon  the  Church.  "  To  everything,"  saith  the 
preacher,  "  there  is  a  season,  and  a  time  to  every  pur- 
pose under  heaven,"  and  among  the  categories  that 
follow  this  statement  we  find  reckoned  what  answers  to 
liturgical  enrichment,  for  "  there  is,"  he  observes,  "  a 
time  to  build  up." 

Fifty  years  ago  a  persuasive  argument  against  at- 
tempting to  amend  the  Prayer  Book,  either  in  text  or 
rubrics,  might  have  been  based  upon  the  lack  of  hands 
competent  to  undertake  so  delicate  a  task.  Raw 
material,  well  adapted  to  edification,  was  lying  about  in 
blocks,  but  skilled  workmen  were  scarce.  This  can 
hardly  be  said  to-day.  Simultaneously  with  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Oxford  movement,  there  naturally  sprang 
up  a  fresh  interest  in  liturgical  studies,  an  interest 
which  has  gone  on  deepening  and  widening  until  in 
volume  and  momentum  the  stream  has  now  probably 
reached  its  outer  limit.  The  convincing  citation,  "  There 
were  giants  in  those  days,"  with  which  a  late  bishop  of  one 
of  the  New  England  dioceses  used  to  enforce  his  major 
premise  that  wisdom  died  with  Cranmer  and  his  col- 
leagues, no  longer  satisfies.  Probably  no  period  of  cor- 
responding length  in  the  whole  range  of  English  Church 
history  has  shown  itself  so  rich  in  the  fruits  of  liturgical 
study  as  the  fifty  years  that  have  elapsed  since  the 
introduction  into  the  English  Parliament  of  the  first 


82  REVISION   OF   THE 

Reform  Bill.*  This  particular  historical  landmark  is 
mentioned  on  account  of  the  close  connection  of  cause 
and  effect  between  it  and  the  remarkable  movement  set 
on  foot  by  Newman,  Pusey,  Keble,  and  Froude.  To  be 
sure,  one  of  the  earliest  utterances  in  the  Tracts  ran  in 
these  words  :  "  Attempts  are  making  to  get  the  Liturgy 
altered.     My  dear  brethren,  I  beseech  you  consider  with 

*  A  list  of  the  more  noticeable  Anglican  works  on  Liturgies 
published  during  the  period  named,  arranged  in  the  order  of 
their  appearance,  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  accuracy  of  the 
statement  made  above,  and  may  also  be  of  value  to  the  general 
reader  for  purposes  of  reference. 

1832.  Origines  Liturgicee,  William  Palmer.  1833-41.  Tracts 
for  the  Times.  1840.  Conferences  on  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  Edward  Cardwell.  1843.  The  Choral  Service  of  the 
Churches  of  England  and  Ireland,  John  Jebb.  1844.  The 
Ancient  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England,  William  Maskell. 
1845.  Pickering's  Reprints  of  the  Prayer  Books  of  1549,  1552, 
1559,  1603,  and  1662.  1846.  Monumenta  Ritualia,  William 
Maskell.  1847.  Reliquiae  Liturgicee,  Peter  Hall.  1848.  Frag- 
menta  Liturgica,  Peter  Hall.  1849.  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
with  Notes  legal  and  historical,  A.  J.  Stephens.  Manuscript 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  for  Ireland,  A.  J.  Stephens.  Tetra- 
logia  Liturgica,  John  Mason  Neale.  1853.  Two  Liturgies  of 
Edward  VI.,  Edward  Cardwell.  1855.  Principles  of  Divine 
Service,  Philip  Freeman.  History  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  F.  Proctor.  1858.  History  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  T.  Lathbury.  1859.  Directorium  Anglicanum,  J. 
Purchas.  1861.  Ancient  Collects,  William  Bright.  1865.  Liber 
Precum  Publicarum,  Bright  and  Medd.  1865.  The  Priest's 
Prayer  Book.  1865.  History  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  R. 
P.  Blakeney.  1866.  The  Prayer  Book  Interleaved,  Campion 
and  Beaumont.  1866.  The  Annotated  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
J.  H.  Blunt.  1870.  The  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  Sarum, 
Translated,  Charles  Walker.  1870.  The  First  Prayer  Book  of 
Edward  VI.  with  the  Ordinal,  Walton  and  Medd.     1872.  Psalms 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRATER.  83 

me  whether  you  ought  not  resist  the  alteration  of  even 
one  jot  or  tittle  of  it."  * 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  disclaimer,  one  of  the 
main  impulses  that  lay  behind  the  whole  movement 
represented  by  the  Tracts  was  an  earnest  desire  to 
quicken  the  life  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the  region 
of  worship.  In  the  Table  of  the  Tracts,  showing  their 
arrangement  according  to  Subjects,  the  "Liturgical" 
section  comes  first. 

The  present  writer  acknowledges  but  a  very  limited 
sympathy  with  the  doctrinal  motives  and  aims  of 
either  the  earlier  or  the  later  Tractarians.  But  let  us, 
above  all  things,  be  fair.  With  whatever  prepossessions 
one  looks  back  upon  it,  the  ground  traversed  by  the 
Church  of  England  during  the  past  fifty  years  cannot 
be  otherwise  regarded  than  as  afield  sown  with  mingled 
tares  and  wheat.  Individuals  will  differ  in  judgment  as 
to  the  proportion  in  which  these  two  products  of  a 
common  soil  have  coexisted,  but  even  those  who  have 
most  stoutly  opposed  themselves  to  the  Oxford  move- 
ment, as  a  whole,  are  fain  to  credit  it  with,  at  least,  this 
one  good  result,  the  rescue  of  the  usages  of  worship 
from  slovenliness  and  torpor,  and  the  establishment  of  a 

and  Litanies,  Rowland  Williams.  1872.  Notitia  Eucharistica, 
W.  E.  Scudamore.  1875-80.  Dictionary  of  Christian  Antiquities, 
Smith  and  Cheetham.  1876.  First  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI. , 
compared  with  the  successive  Revisions,  James  Parker.  1877. 
Introduction  to  the  History  of  the  successive  Revisions  of 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  James  Parker.  1878.  Liturgies 
-Eastern  and  Western,  C.  E.  Hammond.  1880.  The  Convocation 
Prayer  Book. 

*  Tract  No.  3.  Thoughts  respectfully  addressed  to  the  Clergy  on 
alterations  in  the  Liturgy. 


84  REVISION   OF  THE 

better  standard  of  what  is  seemly,  reverent,  and  beauti- 
ful in  the  public  service  of  Almighty  God.  Not  that 
there  have  not  been,  even  in  this  respect,  grave  errors  in 
the  direction  of  excess  ;  the  statement  ventured  is  sim- 
ply this,  that,  up  to  a  certain  point,  all  Churchmen  agree 
in  admitting  a  genuine  and  wholesome  improvement  in 
the  popular  estimate  of  what  public  worship,  as  such, 
ought  to  be.  An  immense  amount  of  devout  study  has 
been  given,  during  the  period  mentioned,  by  many  able 
men  to  liturgical  subjects,  and  it  would  be  strange 
indeed  if  fifty  years  of  searching  criticism  had  not  re- 
sulted in  the  detection  of  some  few  points  in  which 
formularies  originally  compiled  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
sixteenth  century  might  be  better  adapted  to  the  re- 
quirements of  the  twentieth.  Or,  to  put  the  same  point 
in  another  way,  has  not  all  this  searching  into  the  mines 
of  buried  treasure,  all  this  getting  together  of  quarried 
stone  (with  possibly  a  certain  surplusage  of  stubble) 
been  so  much  labor  lost,  if  there  is  never  to  come  the 
recognition  of  a  ripe  moment  for  the  Church  to  avail 
itself  of  the  results  achieved  ?  Are  the  studious  toils  of 
a  Palmer,  a  Maskell,  a  Neale,  a  Scudamore,  and  a 
Bright  to  go  for  nothing  except  in  so  far  as  they  have 
been  contributory  to  our  fund  of  ecclesiological  lore  ? 
If  so,  the  contempt  often  expressed  for  ritual  and 
liturgical  studies  by  students  busy  with  other  lines  of 
research  would  seem  to  be  not  wholly  undeserved. 

A  good  opportunity  is  now  before  the  Church  to  give 
answer  as  to  whether  this  form  of  investigation  is  or  is 
not  anything  better  than  a  species  of  sacred  antiquarian- 
ism.  Liturgiology  as  an  aspirant  for  recognition  among 
the  useful  sciences  may  be  said  at  the  present  moment 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  &5 

to  be  waiting  for  the  verdict.  To  be  sure,  it  can  be 
asserted  for  liturgiology  that  to  those  who  love  it  it  is  a 
study  that  proves  itself,  like  poetry,  "its  own  exceeding 
great  reward."  It  is  not  worth  while  to  dispute  this 
point.  Liturgiology  pursued  for  its  own  sake  may  not 
be  the  loftiest  of  studies,  but  this,  at  least,  can  be  said 
for  it,  that  it  is  a  not  less  respectable  object  of  pursuit 
than  many  another  specialty  the  devotees  of  which  look 
down  upon  the  liturgiologist  with  self-complacent  scorn 
as  a  mere  chiffonier.  The  forms  which  Christian  wor- 
ship has  taken  on  in  successive  generations  and  among 
peoples  of  various  blood  are  certainly  as  well  worthy  of 
analysis  and  classification  as  are  the  flora  and  fauna  of 
Patagonia  or  New  Zealand.  But  while  the  Patagonian 
naturalist  secures  recognition  and  is  decorated,  every 
jaunty  man  of  letters  feels  at  liberty  to  scoff  at  the 
liturgiologist  as  a  laborious  trifler. 

Moreover,  remembering  that  in  favorite  studies,  as  in 
crops,  there  rules  a  principle  of  rotation,  fashion  affect- 
ing even  staid  divines  with  its  subtle  influence,  we  may 
look  to  see  presently  a  decline  of  interest  in  this  particu- 
lar department  of  inquiry.  Especially  may  serious  men 
be  expected  to  turn  their  attention  in  other  directions, 
should  it  be  found  that  a  Won  possumus  awaits  every 
effort  to  make  the  fruits  of  their  labor  available  for  the 
nourishment  of  the  Church's  daily  life.  So  then,  instead 
of  deferring  action  until  liturgical  knowledge  shall 
have  become  more  widely  spread,  and  available  liturgi- 
cal material  more  abundant,  we  shall,  if  we  are  wise, 
perceive  that  only  by  moving  promptly  will  it  be  possi- 
ble in  this  case  to  take  the  tide  at  the  full.  Never  again 
will  opportunity  be  more  ripe.- 


86  REVISION   OP   THE 

Another  evidence  of  timeliness  is  supplied  by  the 
present  pacific  condition  of  the  Church.  Previous 
movements  toward  liturgical  revision  have  been  of  a 
more  or  less  partisan  and  acrimonious  temper.  Now  for 
the  first  time  we  seem  to  be  taking  up  this  subject  with- 
out the  expression  of  a  fear  from  any  quarter  that  if 
changes  are  made  this  or  that^  party  will  get  the  advan- 
tage of  some  other.  The  peculiar  conditions  that  en- 
sure this  unwonted  truce  of  God  are  not  likely  to  last 
forever,  nor  is  it  perhaps  wholly  desirable  that  they 
should  do  so ;  what  is  desirable,  and  very  desirable,  is 
that  we  should  avail  ourselves  of  the  lull  to  accomplish 
certain  changes  for  the  better,  which  in  ordinary  times 
the  prevalent  heat  of  friction  makes  impossible.  The 
Joint  Committee  of  Twenty-one  is  confidently  believed 
to  contain  within  itself  every  shade  of  color  known  to 
belong  to  the  Anglican  spectrum  ;  if  white  light  should 
be  found  to  emerge,  three  years  hence,  as  a  result  of 
the  Committee's  labors,  it  will  be  said,  and  truly,  that 
never  before  in  our  history  could  such  a  blending  of  the 
rays  possibly  have  taken  place. 

Still  another  consideration  properly  included  under 
the  general  head  of  timeliness  is  said  to  have  been  urged 
with  much  force  in  the  House  of  Bishops  when  the 
"  enrichment "  resolution  was  under  discussion. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  Episcopal  Church  of  this 
country  has  stood  easily  at  the  head  in  the  matter  of 
providing  for  the  people  a  dignified  and  beautiful  order 
of  divine  service.  In  fact,  there  has  been,  until  lately, 
no  one  to  compete.  But  all  this  is  changing.  Ours  are  no 
longer  the  only  congregations  in  which  common  prayer 
is  to  be  found.     It  is  true  that  thus  far  the  attempts  at 


AMERICAN    COMMON    PRAYER.  87 

imitation  have  been  rather  grotesque  than  formidable, 
but  such,  until  recently,  have  also  been,  in  the  judgment 
of  foreign  critics,  all  of  our  American  endeavors  after 
art.  We  are  to  consider  what  apt  learners  our  quick- 
witted countrymen  have  shown  themselves  to  be,  in  so 
much  that  even  Christmas  Day,  once  the  bete  noire  of- 
Puritan  legislators,  has  come  to  be  accounted  almost  a 
national  festival,  and  we  shall  be  convinced  that  our 
primacy  in  the  field  of  liturgies  is  not  an  absolutely 
assured  position.  This  argument  is  open  to  the  criticism 
that  it  seems  to  lower  and  cheapen  the  whole  subject  by 
representing  Anglican  religion  in  a  mendicant  attitude 
bidding  for  the  favor  of  the  great  American  public,  and 
vexed  that  others,  fellow-suppliants,  have  stolen  a  good 
formula  of  appeal.  Nevertheless  there  is  a  certain 
amount  of  reasonableness  in  this  way  of  putting  the 
thing.  Certainly  with  those  who  reckon  the  liturgical 
mode  of  worship  among  the  notes  of  the  Church,  the 
argument  is  one  that  ought  to  have  marked  influence  ; 
while  with  those  who,  not  so  persuaded,  nevertheless 
view  with  pleased  interest  the  general  spread  of  a 
liturgical  taste  among  the  people  of  this  country,  seeing 
in  it  a  token  of  better  things  to  come,  a  harbinger  of 
larger  agreements  than  we  have  yet  attained  to,  and  of 
an  approaching  "  consolation  of  Israel  "  once  not  thought 
possible — even  with  such  the  argument  ought  not  to  be 
wholly  powerless.* 

*  One  of  the  most  curious  illustrations  of  the  spread  of  Anglican 
ideas  about  worship  now  in  progress  is  to  be  found  in  the  upspring- 
ing  in  the  very  bosom  of  Scottish  Presbyterianism  of  a  Church 
Service  Society.  Two  of  the  publications  of  this  Society  have 
lately  fallen  in  the  present  writer's  way.     They  bear  the  imprint  of 


88  EE  VISION   OF   THE 

The  fact  that  the  Convocations  of  Canterbury  and 
York  have  taken  in  hand  and  carried  through  a  revision 
of  the  rubrics  of  the  Prayer  Book  will  seem  to  those  who 
hold  that  our  Church  ought  to  advance  pari  passu  with 
the  Church  of  England,  and  no  faster,  another  evidence 
of  the  timeliness  of  the  American  movement.  Under 
the  title  of  The  Convocation  Prayer  Book  there  has 
lately  appeared  in  England  an  edition  of  the  Prayer 
Book  so  printed  as  to  show  how  the  book  would  read 
were  the  recommendations  of  York  and  Canterbury  to 
go  into  effect.  It  is  true  that  the  consent  of  Parliament 
must  be  secured  before  the  altered  rubrics  can  have  the 
force  of  law  ;  but  whatever  may  come  of  the  rubrics 
recommended,  the  existence  of  the  book  containing 
them  is  evidence  enough  of  a  wide-spread  conviction 
among  the  English  clergy  that  change  is  needed. 

Indeed  never  has  this  point  been  more  powerfully  put 
in  the  fewest  possible  words  than  by  the  brilliant,  and 
no  less  logical  than  brilliant  Bishop  of  Peterborough  in 
a  recent  speech  in  the  Upper  House  of  Convocation.* 
"  If  the  Church  of  England  wants  absolute  peace,  she 
should  have  definite  rubrics." 

It  is  true  he  goes  on  to  say  that  in  his  judgment  the 

Wm.  Blackwood  &  Sons,  Edinburgh,  and  are  entitled  respectively, 
A  Book  of  Common  Order,  and  Home  Prayer.  With  questionable 
good  taste  the  compilers  have  given  to  the  former  work  a  Greek  and 
to  the  latter  a  Latin  sub-title  (Evxolioyiov  and  Suspiria  Bomestica). 
Both  books  have  many  admirable  points,  although,  in  view  of 
the  facts  of  history,  there  is  a  ludicrous  side  to  this  attempt  to 
commend  English  viands  to  Northern  palates  under  a  thin  garniture 
of  Scottish  herbs  which  probably  has  not  wholly  escaped  the 
notice  of  the  compilers  themselves. 
*  See  The  Guardian  (London),  February  9,  1881. 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  &9 

dangers  of  carrying  the  question  of  rubrical  revision  into 
Parliament  are  greater  than  the  evil  of  letting  it  alone, 
but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  we  in  this  country  are 
hampered  with  no  Parliamentary  entanglements  and  are 
free  to  do  of  our  own  motion,  and  in  a  quiet,  orderly 
way,  that  which  the  Church  of  England  can  only  do  at 
the  risk  of  something  very  like  revolution. 

But  this  matter  of  the  rubrics  and  their  susceptibility 
of  improvement  will  come  up  later  on.  It  seemed 
proper  to  refer  to  it,  if  no  more,  under  the  head  of  time- 
liness. If  nothing  else  in  the  way  of  change  be  oppor- 
tune at  the  present  moment,  it  is  an  easy  task  to  show 
that  the  rubrics,  as  they  stand,  cry  aloud  for  a  revision. 

IV.  The  obstacles  to  be  encountered  by  any  Com- 
mittee undertaking  so  to  carry  forward  a  review  of  the 
Prayer  Book  that  revision  may  eventually  result,  are  of 
two  sorts  ;  there  are  the  inherent  difficulties  of  the  work 
itself,  such,  for  instance,  as  that  of  matching  the  literary 
style  of  the  sixteenth  century  writers,  and  there  is  the 
wholesome  dread  of  a  change  for  the  worse  which  is 
sure  to  assert  itself  in  many  quarters  the  moment  definite 
propositions  shall  have  reached  a  point  at  which  the 
"yeas  and  nays"  are  likely  to  be  called. 

Beginning,  then,  with  the  inherent  difficulties,  and 
taking  them  in  the  inverse  order  of  arduousness,  we  see 
at  once  how  hard  it  must  be  to  secure  unity  and  self- 
consistency  in  the  revision  of  a  book  so  complicated  as 
the  Common  Prayer.  It  is  like  remodelling  an  old 
house.  We  think  it  a  very  easy  matter,  something  that 
can  be  done  in  one's  head,  but  the  mistake  is  discovered 
when  the  new  door  designed  to  give  symmetry  to  this 
room  is  found  to  have  spoiled  the  looks  of  that,  when 


00  BEVISION    OF   THE 

the  enlargement  of  the  library  turns  out  to  have  over- 
taxed the  heating  energy  of  the  fireplace,  and  the 
ingenious  staircase,  instead  of  ending  where  it  was 
expected  to  end,  brings  up  against  an  intractable  brick 
wall.  Just  such  perils  as  these  will  beset  anybody  who 
ventures  to  disturb  the  adjustments  of  the  "Prayer 
Book  as  it  is  "  and  to  introduce  desirable  additions.  But 
domestic  architecture  is  not  given  up  on  account  of  the 
patient  carefulness  the  practice  of  it  demands,  neither 
need  Liturgical  Revision  be  despaired  of  because  it 
requires  of  the  men  who  undertake  it  a  like  wisdom  in 
looking  before  and  after. 

The  really  formidable  barrier  to  revision,  so  far  as 
what  have  been  called  the  "inherent  difficulties "  are 
concerned,  is  reached  when  we  touch  style.  How  to 
handle  without  harming  the  sentences  in  which  English 
religion  phrased  itself  when  English  language  was 
fresher  and  more  fluent  than  it  can  ever  be  again  is  a 
serious  question.  The  hands  that  seek  to  "  enrich  "  may 
well  be  cautioned  to  take  heed  lest  they  despoil.  It  is 
to  be  remembered,  however,  in  the  way  of  reassurance 
that  the  alterations  most  likely  to  find  favor  with  the 
reviewers  are  such  as  will  enrich  by  restoring  lost  excel- 
lencies, rather  than  by  introducing  forms  fashioned  on  a 
modern  anvil. 

The  most  sensitive  critic  could  not,  on  the  score  of 
taste,  find  fault  with  the  replacement  in  the  Evening 
Prayer  of  the  Magnificat  and  the  JVunc  dimittis,  nor  of 
bringing  back  a  few  of  the  Versicles  that  in  the  English 
book  follow  the  Lord's  Prayer,  nor  yet  of  our  being 
allowed  to  say,  "  Lighten  our  darkness,  we  beseech  thee, 
0  Lord,"  rather  than  "  O  Lord,  our  Heavenly  Father,  by 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  91 

whose  Almighty  power  we  have  been  preserved  this 
day."  Objections  to  these  alterations  may  be  readily 
imagined,  but  it  would  be  necessary  to  base  them  on 
other  grounds  than  those  of  literary  fastidiousness.  In 
the  case  of  enrichments  like  these  no  one  could  raise  the 
cry  that  the  faultless  English  of  the  Prayer  Book  had 
been  marred. 

But  what  shall  be  said  of  the  composition  of  entirely 
new  services  and  offices,  if  it  should  be  judged  expedient 
to  give  admission  to  any  such  ?  How  can  we  be  sure 
that  such  modern  additions  to  the  edifice  would  be  suffi- 
ciently in  keeping  with  the  general  tone  of  the  elder 
architecture?  It  might  be  held  to  be  an  adequate 
answer  to  these  questions  to  reply  that  if  the  living 
Church  cannot  now  trust  herself  to  speak  out  through 
her  formularies  in  her  natural  voice  as  she  did  venture 
to  do  in  the  seventeenth  century  and  the  eighteenth,  it 
must  be  that  she  has  fallen  into  that  stage  of  decrepitude 
where  the  natural  voice  is  uncertain. 

But,  really,  what  ought  to  be  said  is  this — that  if  .the 
same  canons  of  style  that  ruled  the  sixteenth  century 
writers  are  studied  and  obeyed,  there  is  no  reason  in  the 
world  why  a  result  equally  satisfactory  with  the  one  then 
attained  should  not  be  reached  now.  There  is  nothing 
supernatural  about  the  English  of  the  Prayer  Book. 
Cranmer  and  his  associates  were  not  inspired.  The 
prose  style  of  the  nineteenth  century  may  not  be  as 
good  as  that  of  the  sixteenth,  but,  at  its  best,  it  is  vastly 
superior  to  eighteenth  century  style,  and  of  this  last 
there  are  already  no  inconsiderable  specimens  in  the 
American  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  The  Office  for  the 
Visitation  of  Prisoners,  for  example,  is  so  redolent  of 


92  REVISION   OP   THE  - 

the  times  of  the  Georges,  when  it  was  composed,  that  it 
might  be  appropriately  enough  interleaved  with  prints 
out  of  Hogarth.  A  bit  of  Palladian  architecture  in  a 
Gothic  church  is  not  more  easily  recognized.  Many 
worse  things  might  happen  to  the  Prayer  Book  than 
that  the  nineteenth  century  should  leave  its  impress 
upon  the  pages. 

In  fact,  it  is  just  as  possible,  if  men  will  only  think 
so,  to  use  our  language  with  effect  for  any  good  purpose 
to-day  as  it  was  three  hundred  years  ago.  All  that  is 
necessary  is  a  willingness  to  submit  to  the  same  restric- 
tions, and  those  mostly  moral,  that  controlled  the  old 
writers  ;  and  our  work,  though  not  identical  with  theirs, 
will  have  the  proper  similarity.  True,  a  modern  author 
may  not  be  able  to  reproduce,  without  a  palpable  betrayal 
of  affectation  and  mannerism,  the  precise  characteristics 
of  a  bygone  style.  Chattertons  are  not  numerous.  It 
is  easier  to  secure  for  the  brass  andirons  and  mahogany- 
dining  chairs  of  our  own  manufacture  the  look  of  those 
that  belonged  to  our  grandfathers  than  it  is  to  catch  the 
tones  of  voices  long  dead  ;  and  just  as  good  judgment 
dictates  the  wisdom  of  repeating  the  honest  and 
thorough  workmanship  of  the  old  cabinet-makers  in 
place  of  slavishly  imitating  their  patterns,  so  it  will  be 
well  if  the  compilers  of  devotional  forms  for  modern 
use  seek  to  say  what  they  have  to  say  with  sixteenth 
century  simplicity  rather  than  in  sixteenth  century 
speech.  In  letters,  as  in  conduct,  the  supreme  charm  of 
style  is  the  absence  of  self-consciousness.  "  Say  in  plain 
words  the  thing  you  mean,  and  say  it  as  if  you  meant 
it,"  is  good  advice  to  any  seeker  after  rhetorical  excel- 
lence, be  he  young  or  old.     The  Reformers,  that  is  to 


AMERICAN    COMMON   PRAYER.  93. 

say,  the  men  who  Englished  the  Prayer  Book,  in  seeking 
to  meet  the  devotional  needs  of  the  people  of  their  own 
time  do  not  seem  to  have  been  at  pains  to  tie  themselves 
to  the  diction  of  a  previous  generation.  They  dared  to 
"  call  a  spade  a  spade  "  whenever  and  wherever  the  tool 
came  into  use,  and  they  have  their  reward  in  the  per- 
manence of  their  work.  Sweetnesses  and  prettinesses 
they  banished  altogether.  Indeed,  in  those  days  it 
seems  not  to  have  occurred  to  people  that  such  things 
had  anything  to  do  with  religion.  It  was  not  that  they 
did  not  know  how  to  talk  in  the  sweet  way — never  has 
sentimentalism  been  more  rife  in  general  literature  than 
then,  but  they  would  not  talk  in  that  way;  the  stern 
traditions  of  Holy  Church  throughout  all  the  world  for- 
bade. Religion  was  a  most  serious  thing  to  their  minds, 
and  they  would  speak  of  it  most  seriously  or  not  at  all. 

Never  since  language  began  to  be  used  have  severity 
and  tenderness  been  more  marvellously  blended  than  in 
the  older  portions  of  the  English  Prayer  Book. 

This  effect  is  largely  due  to  an  almost  entire  absten- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  writers  from  figurative  language, 
or  at  least  from  all  imagery  that  is  not  readily  recog- 
nized as  Scriptural.  Bread  and  beef  are  what  men  de- 
mand for  a  steady  diet.  Sweetmeats  are  well  enough, 
now  and  then,  but  only  now  and  then. 

It  is  the  failure  to  observe  this  plain  canon  of  style 
that  has  made  shipwreck  of  many  an  attempt  to  con- 
struct liturgies  de  novo.  Ambitious  framers  of  forms  of 
worship  seem  almost  invariably  to  forget  that  there  may 
be  such  a  thing  as  a  too  exquisite  prayer,  an  altogether 
too  "eloquent  address  to  the  throne  of  grace."  The 
longest  and  fullest  supplicatory  portion  of  the  Prayer 


94  REVISION    OF   THE 

Book,  the  Litany,  does  not  contain,  from  the  first  sen- 
tence to  the  last,*  one  single  figurative  expression,  it  is 
literally  plain  English  from  beginning  to  end  ;  but 
could  language  be  framed  more  intense,  more  satisfying, 
more  likely  to  endure  ? 

Scriptural  metaphor,  whether  because  it  comes  to  us 
with  the  stamp  of  authority  or  on  account  of  some 
subtle  intrinsic  excellence,  it  may  be  difficult  to  say, 
does  not  pall  upon  the  taste.  And  yet  even  this  is  used 
sparingly  in  the  Prayer  Book,  some  of  the  most  striking 
exceptions  to  the  general  rule  being  afforded  by  the 
collects  for  the  first  and  third  Sundays  in  Advent,  the 
collects  for  the  Epiphany  and  Easter  Even,  and  the 
opening  prayer  in  the  Baptismal  Office.  All  these  are 
instances  of  strictly  Scriptural  metaphor,  and  moreover 
it  is  to  be  kept  in  mind  that  they  are  designed  for  occa- 
sional, not  constant  use.  In  the  orders  for  daily  Morning 
and  Evening  Prayer,  the  "lost  sheep"  of  the  General 
Confession  and  the  "dew"  of  God's  blessing  in  the 
Collect  for  Clergy  and  People  are  almost  the  sole,  if  not 
the  sole  cases  of  evident  metaphor,  and  these  again  are 
Scriptural.  When  in  Jeremy  Taylor's  prayer,  intro- 
duced by  the  American  revisers  into  the  Order  for  the 
Visitation  of  the  Sick,  we  come  upon  the  comparison  of 
human  life  to  a  "  vale  of  misery  "  we  feel  that  somehow 
we  have  struck  a  new  current  in  the  atmosphere  ;  for 
the  moment  it  is  the  rhetorician  who  speaks,  and  no 
longer  the  earnest  seeker  after  God. 

Besides  this  freedom  from  figures  of  speech,  we 
notice  in  the  style  of  Prayer  Book  English  a  careful 

*Unless  "finally  to  beat  down  Satan  under  our  feet,"  be 
reckoned  an  exception. 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  95 

avoidance  of  whatever  looks  like  a  metaphysical  ab- 
straction. The  aim  is  ever  to  present  God  and  divine 
things  as  realities  rather  than  as  mere  concepts  or 
notions  of  the  mind.  So  far  as  the  writer  remembers, 
not  a  single  prayer  in  the  whole  book  begins  with  that 
formula  so  dear  to  the  makers  of  extemporary  forms  of 
devotion,  "  O  Thou."  On  the  contrary,  the  approach  to 
the  Divine  Majesty  is  almost  always  made  with  a  refer- 
ence to  some  attribute  or  characteristic  that  links  Deity 
to  man  and  man's  affairs  ;  it  is  "  O  God,  the  Protector 
of  all  that  trust  in  thee,"  or  "  Almighty  and  everlasting 
God  who  of  thy  tender  love  toward  mankind,"  or  "Lord 
of  all  power  and  might  who  art  the  author  and  giver  of 
all  good  things." 

Cardinal  Newman  in  one  of  his  theological  works 
written  before  his  departure  from  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, has  a  powerful  passage  bearing  upon  this  point. 
He  is  criticising  the  evangelicals  for  their  one-sided 
way  of  setting  forth  what  it  must  mean  to  "  preach  the 
Gospel."  No  less  a  person  than  Legh  Richmond  is  the 
object  of  his  strictures. 

"A  remarkable  contrast  between  our  Church's  and 
this  false  view  of  religion,"  he  says,  "is  afforded  in  the 
respective  modes  of  treating  a  death -bed  in  the  Visi- 
tation of  the  Sick,  and  a  popular  modern  work,  the 
Dairyman's  Daughter.  The  latter  runs  thus  :  My  dear 
friend,  do  you  not  feel  that  you  are  supported?  The 
Lord  deals  very  gently  with  me,  she  replied.  Are  not 
his  promises  very  precious  to  you  ?  They  are  all  yea 
and  amen  in  Christ  Jesus.  .  .  Do  you  experience  any 
doubts  or  temptations  on  the  subject  of  your  eternal 
safety  ?    No,  sir;   the  Lord  deals  very  gently  with  me 


96  REVISION   OP   THE 

and  gives  me  peace.  What  are  your  vieios  of  the  dark 
valley  of  death  now  that  you  are  passing  through  it  ? 
It  is  not  dark.  Now,  if  it  be  said  that  such  questions 
and  answers  are  not  only  in  their  place  innocent  but 
natural  and  beautiful,  I  answer  that  this  is  not  the 
point,  but  this,  viz.,  they  are  evidently  intended,  what- 
ever their  merits,  as  a  pattern  of  what  death-bed  exami- 
nations should  be.  Such  is  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  Now  let  us  listen  to  the 
nervous  and  stern  tone  of  the  sixteenth.  In  the  Prayer 
Book  the  minister  is  instructed  to  say  to  the  person 
visited  :  Forasmuch  as  after  this  life  there  is  an  account 
to  be  given  to  the  Righteous  Judge  ...  I  require  you 
to  examine  yourself  and  your  estate  both  toward  God 
and  man.  Therefore  I  shall  rehearse  to  you  the 
Articles  of  our  Faith,  that  you  may  know  whether  you 
do  believe  as  a  Christian  man  should  or  no.  .  .  *  Then 
shall  the  minister  examine  whether  he  repent  him  truly 
of  his  sins,  and  be  in  charity  with  all  the  world  :  ex- 
horting him  to  forgive  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart  all 
persons  who  have  offended  him,  and  if  he  hath  offended 
any  other  to  ask  their  forgiveness,  and  where  he  hath 
done  injury  or  wrong  to  any  man  that  he  make  amends 
to  the  utmost  of  his  power.'  .  .  Such  is  the  contrast 
between  the  dreamy  talk  of  modern  Protestantism,  and 
*  holy  fear's  stern  glow  '  in  the  Church  Catholic."  * 

In  this  striking,  though  perhaps  somewhat  unneces- 
sarily harsh  way,  Newman  brings  out  a  point  which  is 
unquestionably  true,  namely,  that  the  language  of  the 
Prayer  Book  is  of  the  sort  which  it  is  just  now  the 
fashion  to  call  realistic,  that  is,  a  language  conversant 
*  Lectures  on  Justification,  p  380. 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  97 

with  great  facts  rather  than  with  phases  of  feeling  and 
moods  of  mind  ;  which  after  all  is  only  another  way  of 
saying  that  it  is  a  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  not  a 
manual  for  the  furtherance  of  spiritual  introspection. 

These,  then,  are  the  characteristics  of  the  Prayer  Book 
style  :  it  is  simple,  straightforward,  unmetaphorical, 
realistic.  Seriously  it  looks  almost  like  a  studied  insult 
alike  to  the  scholarship  and  to  the  religion  of  our  day,  to 
say  that  these  are  excellencies  attainable  no  longer. 
That  revisers  venturing  upon  additions  to  the  Prayer 
Book  would  be  bound  to  set  the  face  as  a  flint  against 
any  slightest  approach  to  sentimentality  is  true.  But 
why  assume  that  the  men  do  not  exist  who  are  capable 
of  such  a  measure  of  self-control  ?  Grant  that  there  are 
whole  volumes  of  devotional  matter,  original  and  com- 
piled, which  one  may  ransack  without  finding  a  single 
form  that  is  not  either  prolix,  wishy-washy,  or  supersti- 
tious— it  does  not  follow  that  if  the  Prayer  Book  is 
to  be  enriched,  the  enrichments  must  necessarily  come 
from  such  sources.  Moreover  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  there  is  another  vice  of  style  to  be  shunned  in 
liturgical  composition  quite  as  carefully  as  sentimen- 
tality, namely,  jejuneness.  We  cannot  escape  being 
sentimental  simply  by  being  dull.  Feeling  must  not  be 
denied  its  place  in  prayer  for  fear  that  it  may  not  prove 
itself  a  duly  chastened  feeling.  There  ought  to  be  a 
heart  of  fire  underneath  the  calm  surface  of  every 
formulary  of  worship.  Flame  and  smoke  are  out  of 
place  ;  but  a  liturgy  should  glow  throughout.  Coldness, 
pure  and  simple,  has  no  place  in  devotion. 

Over  and  above  the  intrinsic  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
revision  growing  out  of  the  delicate  nature  of  the  work 


98  REVISION   OP   THE 

itself,  obstacles  of  a  different  sort  are  certain  to  be 
encountered.  In  so  large  a  body  of  men  as  the  Joint 
Committee  of  the  two  Houses,  entire  and  cordial  agree- 
ment is  almost  too  much  to  be  expected;  and  then  even 
supposing  a  unanimous  report  submitted,  what  is  likely 
to  follow  ?  Why  this — if  the  changes  proposed  are  few, 
the  cry  will  be  raised,  It  surely  is  not  worth  while  to 
alter  the  Prayer  Book  for  the  sake  of  so  insignificant  a 
gain  ;  whereas  if  the  changes  proposed  are  considerable, 
the  counter  cry  will  be  sounded,  This  is  revolution. 

Then  there  is  the  anxious  question,  How  will  it  look 
to  the  English  ?  What  will  be  the  effect  on  the  Con- 
cordat if  we  touch  the  Prayer  Book  ?  To  be  sure,  the 
Concordat  does  not  seem  to  weigh  very  heavily  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  other  party,  as  indeed  there  is  no  reason 
why  it  should.  Convocation  does  not  much  disturb  itself 
as  to  the  view  General  Convention  is  likely  to  take  of  its 
sayings  and  doings,  and  even  disestablishment  might 
proceed  without  our  being  called  into  consultation. 
And  yet  the  Concordat  difficulty  will  have  to  be  reckoned 
with  ;  and  the  dire  spectre  of  a  possible  disowning  of 
us  by  our  mother  the  Church  of  England  will  have  to  be 
laid,  before  any  alterations  in  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  will  be  accounted  by  some  among  us  perfectly 
safe. 

But  it  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  go  on  gratuitous^ 
suggesting  opposition  arguments.  They  will  be  sure  to 
present  themselves  unsolicited  in  due  time.  For  the 
present  it  is  enough  to  add  that  if  the  movement  for 
liturgical  revision  has  not  in  it  enough  toughness  of 
fibre  to  enable  it  to  survive  vigorous  attack,  it  does  not 
deserve  success. 


AMERICAN    COMMON   PRAYER.  99 

V.  Under  the  head  of  liturgical  enrichment  ought  to 
be  classed  whatever  alteration  would  really  serve  to 
enhance  the  beauty,  majesty,  or  fitness,  of  accepted 
formularies  of  worship.  Excision  may,  under  conceiv- 
able circumstances,  be  enrichment.  James  Wyatt  un- 
doubtedly imagined  that  he  was  improving  the  Eng- 
lish cathedrals  when  he  whitewashed  their  interiors, 
added  composition  pinnacles  to  the  west  towers  of  Dur- 
ham, and  rearranged  the  ancient  monuments  of  Salis- 
bury ;  but  an  important  part  of  the  enrichment  accom- 
plished by  our  nineteenth  century  restorers  has  lain 
simply  in  the  undoing  of  what  Wyatt  did. 

Again,  substitution  may  be  enrichment,  as  in  the  case 
where  a  wooden  spire  built  upon  a  stone  tower  is  taken 
down  to  be  replaced  by  honest  work.  It  would  be  an 
enrichment  if  in  St.  George's  Chapel,  the  central  shrine 
of  British  royalty,  the  sham  insignia  now  overhanging 
the  stalls  of  the  knights  of  the  garter  were  to  give  room 
to  genuine  armor.  Not  merely  then  by  addition,  but 
possibly,  in  some  instances,  by  both  subtraction  and 
substitution,  we  may  find  "  the  Prayer-book  as  it  is " 
open  to  improvement. 

Before,  however,  entering  upon  any  criticism  of  the 
formularies  in  detail,  it  is  important  to  draw  a  distinc- 
tion between  two  very  different  things,  namely,  the 
structure  of  a  liturgical  office  and  the  contents  of  it. 
By  structure  should  be  understood  the  skeleton  or  frame 
that  makes  the  groundwork  of  any  given  office,  by  con- 
tents the  actual  liturgical  material  employed  in  filling 
out  the  office  to  its  proper  contour. 

The  offices  of  the  Roman  Breviary,  for  example,  con- 
tinue, for  the  most  part,  identical  in  structure  from  day 


100  Revision  of  the 

to  day,  the  year  through ;  but  they  vary  in  contents. 
For  an  illustration  nearer  home  take  our  own  Order  for 
Daily  Morning  Prayer.  The  structure  of  it  is  as  fol- 
lows :  1.  Sentences,  2.  Exhortation,  3.  Confession,  4. 
Absolution,  5.  Lord's  Prayer,  6.  Versicles,  7.  Invitatory 
Psalm,  8.  The  Psalms  for  the  day,  9.  Lection,  10. 
Anthem  or  Canticle,  11.  Lection,  12.  Anthem  or  Canticle, 
13.  Creed,  14.  Versicles,  15.  Collect  for  the  day,  16. 
Stated  Collects  and  Prayers,  17.  Benediction. 

Now  it  is  evident  that  without  departing  by  a  hair's 
breadth  from  the  lines  of  this  framework,  an  indefinite 
number  of  services  might  by  a  process  of  substitution 
be  put  together,  each  one  of  which  would  in  outward 
appearance  differ  widely  from  every  other  one.  The 
identical  skeleton,  that  is  to  say,  might  be  so  variously 
clothed  upon  that  no  two  of  its  embodiments  would  be 
alike.  But  is  it  desirable  to  run  very  much  after  variety 
of  such  a  sort  in  a  book  of  prayer  designed  for  common 
use?  Most  assuredly,  No.  To  jeopard  the  supreme 
desideratum  in  a  people's  manual  of  worship,  simplicity  : 
to  make  it  any  harder  than  it  now  is  for  the  average 
"  stranger  in  the  Church  "  to  find  the  places,  would  be  on 
the  part  of  revisionists  an  unpardonable  blunder. 

There  are,  however,  a  few  points  at  which  the  Morn- 
ing Prayer  might  advantageously  be  enriched,  and  no 
risk  run.  It  would  surely  add  nothing  to  the  difficulty 
of  finding  the  places  if  for  one-half  of  the  present 
opening  sentences  there  were  to  be  substituted  sentences 
appropriate  to  special  days  and  seasons  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical year.  We  should  in  this  way  be  enabled  to  give 
the  key-note  of  the  morning's  worship  at  the  very  out- 
set.    Having  once  departed,  as  in  the  case  of  our  first 


AMERICAN   COMMOJf  *PRAYER.  lOl 

two  sentences,  from  the  English  precedent  of  putting- 
only  penitential  verses  of  Scripture  to  this  use,  there  is 
no  reason  why  we  should  not  carry  out  still  more  fully 
in  our  selection  the  principle  of  appropriateness.  The 
sentences  displaced  need  not  be  lost,  for  they  might 
still  stand,  as  now,  at  the  opening  of  the  Evening  Prayer. 

Passing  on  to  the  declarations  of  absolution  there  is 
an  opportunity  to  simplify  the  arrangement  by  omitting 
the  alternate  form  borrowed  from  the  Order  for  the 
Administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  where  only  it 
properly  belongs.  This,  however,  is  a  change  likely  to 
be  resisted  on  doctrinal  grounds,  and  need  not  be  urged. 

Coming  to  the  Venite,  we  find  another  opportunity 
to  accentuate  the  Christian  Year.  It  may  be  said  that 
the  rubric,  as  it  is  already  written,  allows  for  the  sub- 
stitution of  special  anthems  on  the  greater  festivals  and 
fasts.  This  is  true  ;  but  by  giving  the  anthem  for 
Easter  a  place  of  honor,  while  relegating  anthems  for 
the  other  great  days  to  an  unnoticed  spot  between  the 
Selections  and  the  Psalter,  the  American  compilers  did 
practically  discriminate  in  favor  of  Easter  and  against 
the  rest.  The  real  needs  of  the  case  would  be  more 
wisely  met  if  the  permission  to  omit  Venite  now  at- 
tached to  "  the  nineteenth  day  of  the  month  "  were  to 
be  extended  to  Ash-Wednesda}^  and  Good  Friday,  and 
special  New  Testament  anthems  analagous  to  the  Easter 
one  were  to  be  inserted  along  with  the  respective  Col- 
lects, Epistles,  and  Gospels,  for  Christmas-day  and 
Whitsunday. 

By  this  change  we  should  put  each  of  the  three  great 
festivals  of  the  year  into  possession  of  an  invitatory  an- 
them of  its  own  ;  and  we  should  obviate  on  the  fasting 


102  IJEViSiOtf   OF  THE 

days,  by  the  simple  expedient  of  omission,  the  futile 
efforts  of  choir-master  and  organist  to  transform  Venite 
from  a  cry  of  joy  into  a  moan  of  grief. 

This  brings  us  to  the  Psalter.  Here  we  have  an 
opportunity  to  correct  the  palpable  blunder  by  which  it 
has  come  about  that  the  greatest  of  the  penitential 
psalms,  the  fifty-first,  has  no  place  assigned  it  among 
the  proper  psalms  either  for  Ash-Wednesday  or  for  Good 
Friday.*  It  would  also  be  well  to  make  optional,  if  not 
obligatory,  the  use  of  "  proper  psalms "  on  days  other 
than  those  already  provided  with  them;  e.  g.,  Advent 
Sunday,  the  Epiphany,  Easter  Even,  Trinity  Sunday,  and 
All  Saints'  Day.f  There  would  be  a  still  larger  gain  in 
the  direction  of  "  flexibility  of  use,"  as  well  as  a  great 
economy  of  valuable  space,  if  instead  of  reprinting  some 
thirty  of  the  Psalms  of  David  under  the  name  of  Selec- 
tions, we  were  to  provide  for  allowing  "  select  "  psalms 
to  be  announced  by  number  in  the  same  manner  that 
"  proper  "  psalms  are  now  announced.  Instead  of  only 
the  ten  selections  we  now  have,  there  might  then  be 
made  available  twenty  or  thirty  groups  of  psalms  at 
absolutely  no  sacrifice  of  room.  It  has  been  objected  to 
this  proposal  that  the  same  difficulty  which  now  attaches 
to  the  finding  of  the  "proper  psalms"  on  great  days 
would     embarrass    congregations     whenever     "  select 

*  The  rationale  of  this  curious  lapse  is  simple.  The  American 
revisers,  instead  of  transferring  the  Comminatiou  Office  in  toto  to 
the  new  book,  wisely  decided  to  engraft  certain  features  of  it  upon 
the  Morning  Prayer  for  Ash-Wednesday.  In  the  process,  the 
fifty-first  Psalm,  which  has  a  recognized  place  in  the  Commina- 
tion,  dropped  out,  instead  of  being  transferred,  as  it  should  have 
been,  to  the  proper  psalms. 

f  See  the  Convocation  Prayer  Book. 


AMERICAN    COMMON   PRATER.  103 

psalms  "  were  given  out ;  but  this  is  fairly  met  by  the 
counter  consideration  that  if  our  people  were  to  be  edu- 
cated by  the  use  of  select  psalms  into  a  more  facile 
handling  of  the  Psalter  it  would  be  just  so  much  gained 
for  days  when  the  "  proper  psalms  "  must  of  necessity 
be  found  and  read.  The  services,  that  is  to  say,  would 
run  all  the  more  smoothly  on  the  great  days,  after  con- 
gregations had  become  habituated,  on  ordinary  days,  to 
picking  out  the  psalms  by  number. 

Another  step  in  the  line  of  simplification,  and  one 
which  it  is  in  order  to  mention  here,  would  be  the  re- 
moval from  the  Morning  Prayer  of  Gloria  in  Excelsis> 
seeing  that  it  is  never,  or  almost  never,  sung  at  the  end 
of  the  psalms  unless  at  Evening  Prayer.  As  to  the  ex- 
pediency of  restoring  what  has  been  lost  of  Benedictus 
after  the  second  lesson,  the  present  writer  offers  no 
opinion.  There  are  some  who  warmly  advocate  the  re- 
placement, and  there  is,  unquestionably,  much  to  be 
said  in  favor  of  it.  It  is  unlikely  that  any  doctrinal 
motive  dictated  the  abbreviation. 

Pausing  a  moment  at  the  Creeds  for  the  insertion  of  a 
better  title  than  "  Or  this "  before  the  confession  of 
Nicaea,  we  pass  to  the  versicles  that  follow. 

Here  again  it  would  be  enrichment  to  restore  the 
words  of  the  English  book,  although  the  task  of  finding 
an  equally  melodious  equivalent  for  O  Lord,  save  the 
Queen  might  not  be  easy. 

Happily  the  other  versicles  are  such  as  no  civil  rev- 
olution can  make  obsolete.  It  will  never  be  amiss  to 
pray, 

Endue  thy  ministers  with  righteousness. 
Answer.  And  make  thy  chosen  people  joy ful. 


104  ....    REVISION   OF   THE 

These  are  all  the  alterations  for  which  the  present 
Morning  Prayer  considered  as  a  form  of  Divine  Service 
for  Sundays  would  seem  to  call.  It  will  be  observed 
that  they  are  far  from  being  of  a  radical  character,  that 
they  affect  the  structure  of  the  office  not  at  all,  and 
touch  the  contents  of  it  but  slightly. 

The  case  is  altered  when  we  come  to  the  Order  for 
Evening  Prayer.  Here  there  is  a  demand,  not  indeed 
for  any  structural  change,  but  for  very  decided  enrich- 
ment by  substitution.  The  wording  of  the  office  is  alto- 
gether too  exact  an  echo  of  what  has  been  said  only  a 
few  hours  before  in  Morning  Prayer.  It  betokens  a 
poverty  of  resources  that  does  not  really  exist,  when  we 
allow  ourselves  thus  to  exhort,  confess,  absolve,  inter- 
cede, and  give  thanks  in  the  very  same  phrases  at  three 
in  the  afternoon  that  were  on  our  lips  at  eleven  in  the 
morning. 

Doubtless  liturgical  worship  owes  a  good  measure  of 
its  charm  to  the  subtle  power  of  repetition  ;  but  the 
principle  is  one  that  must  be  handled  and  applied  with 
the  most  delicate  tact,  or  virtue  goes  out  of  it.  We 
must  distinguish  between  similarity  and  sameness.  The 
ordered  recurrence  of  accents  is  what  makes  the  rhythm 
of  verse  ;  but  for  all  that,  there  is  a  difference  between 
poetry  and  sing-song,  just  as  there  is  a  difference  between 
melody  and  monotony.  Moreover,  the  taste  of  mankind 
undergoes  change  as  to  the  sorts  of  repetition  which  it 
is  disposed  to  tolerate.  No  modern  poet  of  standing 
would  venture,  for  instance,  to  employ  identical  epithets 
to  the  extent  that  Homer  does,  making  Aurora  "rosy- 
fingered  "  every  time  she  appears  upon  the  scene,  and 
Juno  as  invariably  "  ox-eyed."    People  were  pleased  with 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PEAYEE.  105 

it  then,  they  would  not  be  pleased  with  it  now.  It  is 
possible  in  liturgies  so  to  employ  the  principle  of  repeti- 
tion that  no  wearying  sense  of  sameness  will  be  con- 
veyed, and  again  it  is  possible  so  to  mismanage  it  as  to 
transform  worship  into  something  little  better  than  a 
"  slow  mechanic  exercise."  Mere  iteration,  as  such,  is 
barren  of  spiritual  power  ;  witness  the  endless  sayings 
over  of  Kyrie  Eleison  in  the  Oriental  service-books,  a 
species  of  vain  repetition  which  a  liturgical  writer  of 
high  intelligence  rightly  characterizes  as  "  unmeaning, 
if  not  profane."  *  Now  the  common  popular  criticism 
upon  the  Evening  Prayer  of  the  Church  is  that  it  repeats 
too  slavishly  the  wording  of  the  Morning  Prayer.  If 
this  is  an  unjust  criticism  we  ought  not  to  let  ourselves 
be  troubled  by  it.  On  the  other  hand,  if  it  is  a  just 
criticism  it  will  be  much  wiser  of  us  to  heed  than  to 
stifle  the  voice  that  tells  us  the  truth.  It  might  seem 
to  be  straining  a  point  were  one  to  venture  to  explain 
the  present  very  noticeable  disinclination  of  Churchmen 
to  attend  a  second  service  on  Sunday,  by  connecting  it 
with  the  particular  infelicity  in  question  ;  but  that  the 
excuse,  We  have  said  all  this  once  to-day  ;  why  say  it 
again  ?  may  possibly  have  something,  even  if  not  much, 
to  do  with  the  staying  at  home  is  certainly  a  fair  con- 
jecture. 

Without  altering  at  all  the  structure  of  the  Evening 
Prayer,  it  would  be  perfectly  possible  so  to  refill  or  re- 
clothe  that  formulary  as  to  give  it  the  one  thing  needful 
which  now  it  lacks — freshness.  In  such  a  process  the 
Magnificat  and  the  Nunc  dimittis  would  play  an  impor- 
tant part ;  as  would  also  certain  "  ancient  collects  "  of 
*  Prayer  Book  Interleaved,  p.  65. 


106  KEVISIOX   OF   THE 

which  we  have  heard  much  of  late.  Failing  this,  the 
next  best  thing  (and  the  thing,  it  may  be  added,  much 
more  likely  to  be  done,  considering  what  a  tough  resist- 
ant is  old  usage)  would  be  the  provision  of  an  alternate 
and  optional  form  of  Evening  Prayer,  to  be  used  either 
in  lieu  of,  or  as  supplementary  to  the  existing  office. 
In  the  framing  of  such  a  Later  Evensong  a  larger  free- 
dom would  be  possible  than  in  the  refilling  of  a  form 
the  main  lines  of  which  were  already  fixed.  Still,  the 
first  plan  would  be  better,  if  only  it  could  be  brought 
within  the  range  of  things  possible. 

Next  to  Evening  Prayer  in  the  order  of  the  Table  of 
Contents  comes  the  Litany.  Here  there  is  no  call  for 
enrichment,*  though  increased  flexibility  of  use  might 

*  A  curious  illustration  of  the  sensitiveness  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  mind  to  anything  that  can  be  supposed  even  remotely 
to  endanger  our  doctrinal  settlement  was  afforded  at  the  late  Gen- 
eral Convention,  when  the  House  of  Deputies  was  thrown  into 
something  very  like  a  panic  by  a  most  harmless  suggestion  with 
reference  to  the  opening  sentences  of  the  Litany.  A  venerable 
and  thoroughly  conservative  deputy  from  South  Carolina  had 
ventured  to  say  that  it  would  be  doctrinally  an  improvement  if 
the  tenet  of  the  double  procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost  were  to  be 
removed  from  the  third  of  the  invocations,  and  a  devotional 
improvement  if  the  language  of  the  fourth  were  to  be  phrased  in 
words  more  literally  Scriptural  and  less  markedly  theological  than 
those  at  present  in  use.  Eager  defenders  of  the  faith  instantly 
leaped  to  their  feet  in  various  parts  of  the  House,  persuaded  that 
a  deadly  thrust  had  been  aimed  at  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 
Never  was  there  a  more  gratuitous  misconception.  The  real  in- 
trenchment  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  so  far  as  the  Litany  is 
concerned,  lies  in  the  four  opening  words  of  the  second  and  the 
five  opening  words  of  the  third  of  the  invocations,  and  these  it  had 
not  been  proposed  to  touch.    In  confirmation  of  this  view  of  the 


AMEBIC  AN    COMMON   PRAYEB.  107 

be  secured  for  this  venerable  form  of  intercessory  prayer 
by  prefixing  to  it  the  following  rubric  abridged  from  a 
similar  one  proposed  in  The  Convocation  Prayer  Book  : 

"  A  General  Supplication,  to  be  sung  or  said  on  Sun- 
days, Wednesdays,  and  Fridays,  and  on  the  Rogation 
Days,  after  the  third  collect  at  Morning  or  Eveniyxg 
Prayer,  or  before  the  Administration  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion ;  or  as  a  separate  Service. 

"Note. — The  Litany  may  be  omitted  altogether  on 
Christmas  Day,  Easter  Day,  and  Whitsunday" 

In  connection  with  the  Morning  and  Evening  Service 
there  is  another  important  question   that  imperatively 

matter,  it  is  pertinent  to  instance  the  Book  of  Family  Prayers  lately 
put  forth  by  a  Committee  of  the  Upper  House  of  the  Convocation 
of  Canterbury.  This  manual  provides  no  fewer  than  six  different 
Litanies,  all  of  them  opening  with  addresses  to  the  three  Persons 
of  the  adorable  Trinity,  and  yet  in  no  one  instance  is  the  principle 
advocated  by  the  deputy  from  South  Carolina  unrecognized. 
Every  one  of  the  six  Litanies  begins  with  language  similar  to  that 
which  he  recommended.  [See  also  in  witness  of  the  mediaeval 
use,  which  partially  bears  out  Mr.  McCrady's  thought,  the  ancient 
Litany  reprinted  by  Maskell  from  The  Prymer  in  English.  Mon. 
Hit.  ii.  p.  95.]  If  the  Upper  House  of  the  Convocation  of  Canter- 
bury, fondly  supposed  by  us  Anglicans  to  be  the  very  citadel  of 
sound  doctrine,  be  thus  tainted  with  heresy,  upon  what  can  we 
depend  ? 

Polemical  considerations  aside,  probably  even  the  most  orthodox 
would  allow  that  the  invocations  of  the  Litany  might  gain  in  de- 
votional power,  while  losing  nothing  in  august  majesty,  were  the 
third  to  run — 0  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  Sanctifier  of  the  faithful, 
have  mercy  upon  us  miserable  sinners.  And  the  fourth  as  in  Bishop 
Heber's  glorious  hymn,  Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  Lord  God  Almighty, 
have  mercy  upon  us  miserable  sinners.  But  all  this  is  doctrinal  and 
plainly  ultra  vires. 


108  REVISION    OF    THE 

demands  discussion,  namely,  a  week-day  worship.  The 
movement  for  "  shortened  services,"  so-called,  has  shared 
the  usual  fate  of  all  efforts  at  bettering  the  life  of 
the  Church,  in  being  at  the  outset  of  its  course  widely 
and  seriously  misunderstood.  The  impression  has  gone 
abroad,  and  to-day  holds  possession  of  many  otherwise 
well-informed  people,  that  a  large  and  growing  party  in 
the  Episcopal  Church  has  openly  declared  itself  wearied 
out  with  overmuch  prayer  and  praise.  Were  such  in- 
deed the  fact,  the  scandal  would  be  grave  ;  but  the  real 
truth  about  the  matter  is  that  the  promoters  of  short- 
ened services,  instead  of  seeking  to  diminish,  are  really 
eager  to  see  multiplied  the  amount  of  worship  rendered 
in  our  churches.  "  Shortened  services  "  is  a  phrase  of 
English,  not  American  origin,  and  has  won  its  way 
here  by  dint  of  euphony  rather  than  of  fitness.  Read- 
justed services,  though  a  more  clumsy,  would  be  a  less 
misdirecting  term.  In  the  matter  of  Sunday  worship, 
the  liberty  now  generally  conceded  of  using  separately 
the  Morning  Prayer,  the  Litany,  and  the  Holy  Com- 
munion is  all  that  need  be  asked.  Whether  these  ser- 
vices, or  at  least  two  of  them,  do  not  in  themselves  ad- 
mit of  a  certain  measure  of  improvement  is  a  point  that 
has  already  been  considered,  but  there  certainly  is  no 
need  of  shortening  them,  whatever  else  it  may  be 
thought  well  to  do.  When  what  a  Boston  worthy  once 
termed  "  a  holy  alacrity  "  is  observed,  on  the  part  of 
both  minister  and  singers,  even  the  aggregated  services 
of  Morning  Prayer,  Litany,  and  "  Ante-Communion," 
together  with  a  sermon  five-and-twenty  minutes  long, 
can  easily  be  brought  within  the  compass  of  an  hour  and 
a  half — a  measure  of  time  not  unreasonably  large  to  be 


AMEEICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  109 

given  to  the  principal  occasion  of  worship  on  the  Lord's 
Day.  As  for  the  Evening  Prayer — there  certainty 
ought  to  be  no  call  for  the  shortening  of  that  on 
Sundays  ;  for  it  would  be  scarcely  decent  or  proper  to 
devote  to  such  a  service  anything  less  than  the  half 
hour  the  existing  office  demands. 

What  the  advocates  of  shortened  services  really  desire 
to  see  furthered  is  an  increase  in  the  frequency  of  op- 
portunities for  worship  during  the  week,  their  con- 
viction being  that  if  the  Church  were  to  authorize  brief 
services  for  morning  and  evening  use,  such  as  would  not 
occupy  much  more  time  than  family  prayers  ordinarily 
do,  the  attendance  might  be  secured  of  many  who,  at 
present,  put  aside  the  whole  question  of  going  to  church 
on  week-days  as  impracticable.  Supposing  it  could  be 
proved  that  such  a  provision  would  work  to  the  dis- 
couragement of  family  prayer,  it  would  plainly  be 
wrong  to  advocate  it  ;  no  priesthood  is  more  sacred 
than  that  which  comes  with  fatherhood.  But  we  must 
face  the  fact  that  in  our  modern  American  life  family 
prayer,  like  sundry  other  wholesome  habits,  has  fallen 
largely  into  disuse.  If  the  Church  can,  in  any  measure, 
supplement  the  deficiencies  of  the  household,  and  help 
to  supply  to  individuals  a  blessing  they  would  gladly 
enjoy  at  their  own  homes,  if  they  might,  it  is  her  plain 
duty  to  do  so.  Moreover,  many  a  minister  who  single- 
handed  cannot  now  prudently  undertake  a  daily  service, 
as  that  is  commonly  understood,  would  acknowledge 
himself  equal  to  the  less  extended  requirement. 

Not  a  few  careful  and  friendly  observers  of  the  prac- 
tical working  of  Anglican  religion  have  been  reluctantly 
led  to  consider  the  daily  service,  as  an  institution,  only 


110  REVISION    OF   THE 

meagrely  successful.     Looking  at  the  matter  historically 
we  find  no  reason  to  wonder  at  such  a  conclusion. 

Our  existing  usage  (or  more  correctly,  perhaps,  non- 
user)  dates  from  the  Reformation  period.  The  English 
Church  and  nation  of  that  day  had  grown  up  familiar 
with  the  spectacle  of  a  very  large  body  of  clerics,  secu- 
lar and  regular,  whose  daily  occupation  may  be  said  to 
have  been  the  pursuit  of  religion.*  The  religion  pur- 
sued consisted  chiefly  in  the  saying  of  prayers,  and  very 
thoroughly,  so  far  at  least  as  the  consumption  of  time 
was  concerned,  were  the  prayers  said.  What  more  nat- 
ural than  that,  under  such  circumstances,  and  with  such 
associations,  the  compilers  of  a  common  Prayer  Book 
for  the  people  should  have  failed  to  see  any  good  reason 
for  discriminating  between  the  amount  of  service  proper 
to  the  Lord's  Day  and  the  amount  that  might  be  reason- 
ably expected  on  other  days  ?  Theoretically  they  were 
right,  all  time  belongs  to  God  and  he  is  as  appropriately 
worshipped  on  Tuesdays  and  Thursdays  as  on  Sundays. 
And  yet  as  a  result  of  their  making  no  such  discrimina- 
tion, we  have  the  daily  service  on  our  hands — a  compar- 
ative, even  if  not  an  utter  failure.  We  may  lament  the 
fact,  but  a  fact  it  is,  that  In  spite  of  all  its  improved 
appliances  for  securing  leisure,  the  world  is  busier  than 
ever  it  was  ;  and  there  will  always  be  those  who  will 
insist  that  the  command  to  labor  on  six  days  is  as  im- 
perative as  the  injunction  to  rest  upon  the  seventh.  As 
a  consequence  of  all  this  accelerated  business,  and  of  the 
diminution  in  the  number  of  persons  officially  set  apart 

*  A  very  natural  explanation,  by  the  way,  of  the  fact,  often 
noticed,  that  there  is  no  petition  in  the  Litany  for  an  increase  of 
the  ministry. 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  Ill 

for  prayer,  the  unabridged  service  of  the  Church  fails  to 
command  a  week-day  attendance.  We  have  no  "  clerks  " 
nowadays  to  fill  the  choir.  The  only  clerks  known  to 
modern  times  are  busy  at  their  desks. 

It  may  be  urged  in  reply  to  this  that  the  practical 
working  of  the  daily  service  ought  to  be  kept  a  second- 
ary consideration,  and  that  its  main  purpose  is  sym- 
bolical, or  representative  ;  the  priest  kneeling  in  his 
place,  day  by  day,  as  a  witness  that  the  people,  though 
unable  personally  to  be  present,  do,  in  heart  and  mind, 
approve  of  a  daily  morning  and  evening  sacrifice  of 
prayer.  This  conception  of  the  daily  service  as  a 
vicarious  thing  has  a  certain  mystical  beauty  about  it, 
but  if  it  is  to  be  adopted  as  the  Church's  own  let  us,  at 
least,  clear  ourselves  of  inconsistency  by  striking  out 
the  word  "  common  "  from  before  the  word  "  prayer  " 
in  characterizing  our  book. 

What  is  really  needed  for  daily  use  in  our  parishes  is 
a  short  form  of  worship  specially  framed  for  the  pur- 
pose. If  they  could  be  employed  without  offence  to  the 
Protestant  ear  (and  they  are  good  English  Reformation 
words)  Week-Day  Matins  and  Week-Day  Evensong 
would  not  be  ill  chosen  names  for  such  services.  The 
framework  of  these  Lesser  Orders  for  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayer,  as  they  might  also  be  called,  were 
the  other  titles  found  obnoxious,  ought  to  be  modelled 
upon  the  lines  of  the  existing  daily  offices,  though  with 
a  careful  avoidance  of  identity  in  contents.  There 
should  be,  for  instance,  as  unvarying  elements,  the  read- 
ing of  the  lessons  for  the  day,  the  use  of  the  collect  for 
the  day,  and  the  saying  or  singing  of  the  psalms  for  the 
day.     Another  constant  would  be   the  Lord's  Prayer; 


112  REVISION   OF   THE 

but  aside  from  these  the  Lesser  Order  need  have  noth- 
in  common  with  the  Order  as  we  have  it  now.  There 
might  be,  for  example,  after  the  manner  of  the  old  ser- 
vice-books, an  invitatory  opening  with  versicles  and 
responses,  or  if  the  present  mode  of  opening  by  sen- 
tences were  preferred,  specially  chosen  sentences,  differ- 
ent from  those  with  which  the  Sunday  worship  has 
made  us  familiar,  could  be  employed.  Moreover,  the 
anthems  or  canticles  and  the  prayers,  with  the  exception 
of  the  two  just  mentioned,  ought  also  to  be  distinctive, 
and,  in  the  technical  sense  of  the  word,  proper  to  the 
week-day  use. 

Again,  it  would  serve  very  powerfully  and  appro- 
priately to  emphasize  the  pivot  points  in  the  ritual  year 
if  this  same  principle  were  to  be  applied  to  saints'  days, 
and  we  were  to  have  special  Holyday  Matins  and  Holy- 
day  Evensong,  there  still  being  required,  on  the  greater 
festivals  and  fasts,  the  normal  Morning  and  Evening 
Prayer  proper  to  the  Lord's  Day.* 

The  argument  in  favor  of  thus  specializing  the  ser- 
vices for  week-days  and  holydays,  in  preference  to  fol- 

*  Here,  i.  e. ,  in  connection  with  Saints'  Day  services,  would  be 
an  admirable  opportunity  for  the  introduction  into  liturgical  use 
of  the  Beatitudes.  What  could  possibly  be  more  appropriate  ? 
And  yet  these  much  loved  words  of  Christ  have  seldom  been 
given  the  place  in  worship  they  deserve. 

They  do  find  recognition  as  an  antiphon  in  the  Liturgy  of 
St.  Ghrysostom.  To  reassert  a  usage  associated  in  the  history  of 
liturgies  with  the  name  of  this  Father  of  the  Church  and  with  his 
name  only,  would  be  to  pay  him  better  honor  than  we  now  show 
by  three  times  inserting  in  our  Prayer  Book  the  collect  conjectu- 
rally  his— a  thing  the  Golden-mouthed  himself,  when  in  the  flesh, 
would  not  have  dreamed  of  doing.  "  Once,"  he  would  have  said, 
11  is  enough." 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  113 

lowing  the  only  method  heretofore  thought  possible, 
namely,  that  of  shortening  the  Lord's  Day  Order,  rests 
on  two  grounds.  In  the  first  place  permissions  to  skip 
and  omit  are  of  themselves  objectionable  in  a  book  of 
devotions.  They  have  an  uncomely  look.  Our  Ameri- 
can Common  Prayer  boasts  too  many  disfigurements  of 
this  sort  already. 

Such  a  rubric  as  The  minister  may,  at  his  discretion, 
omit  all  that  follows  to,  etc.,  puts  one  in  mind  of  the 
finger-post  pointing  out  a  short  cut  to  weary  travellers. 
It  is  inopportune  thus  to  hint  at  exhaustion  as  the  prob- 
able concomitant  of  worship.  That  each  form  should 
have  an  integrity  of  its  own,  should  as  a  separate 
whole  be  either  said  complete  or  left  unsaid,  is  better 
liturgical  philosophy  than  any  "  shortened  services  act  " 
can  show. 

In  the  second  place,  a  certain  amount  of  variety  would 
be  secured  by  the  proposed  method  which  under  the 
existing  system  we  miss.  There  is,  of  course,  such  a 
danger  as  that  of  providing  too  much  liturgical  variety. 
Amateur  makers  of  Prayer  Books  almost  invariably  fall 
into  this  slough.  Hymn-books,  as  is  well  known,  often 
destroy  their  own  usefulness  by  including  too  many 
hymns;  and  Prayer  Books  may  do  the  same  by  having 
too  many  prayers.* 

To  transgress  in  the  compiling  of  formularies  the  line 
of  average  memory,  to  provide  more  material  than  the 
mind  of  an  habitual  worshipper  is  likely  to  assimilate,  is 
to  misread  human  nature.  But  here,  as  elsewhere,  there 
is  a  just  mean.  Cranmer  and  his  colleagues  in  the  work 
of  revision  jumped  at  one  bound  from  a  scheme  which 
*  The  Priest's  Prayer  Book  has  688  (!!)  mostly  juiceless. 


114  BE  VISION   OF   THE 

provided  a  distinctive  set  of  services  for  every  day  in 
the  year  to  a  scheme  that  assigned  one  stereotyped  form 
to  all  days. 

Now  nothing  could  be  more  unwise  than  any  attempt 
to  restore  the  methods  of  the  Breviary,  with  its  compli- 
cated and  artificial  forms  of  devotion;  but  so  far  to 
imitate  the  Breviary  as  to  provide  within  limits  for  a 
recognition  of  man's  innate  love  of  change  would  be 
wisdom.  By  having  a  distinctive  service  for  week-days, 
and  a  distinctive  service  for  holydays,  Ave  might  add 
just  that  little  increment  to  the  Church's  power  of  trac- 
tion that  in  many  instances  would  avail  to  change  "  I 
cannot  go  to  church  this  morning  "  into  "  I  cannot  stay 
away." 

It  will  be  urged  as  a  counter-argument  to  these  con- 
siderations that  the  thing  is  impossible,  that  such  a 
measure  of  enrichment  is  entirely  in  excess  of  anything 
the  Church  has  expressed  a  wish  to  have,  and  that  for 
reviewers  to  propose  a  plan  so  sweeping  would  be  sui- 
cide. Doubtless  this  might  be  a  sufficient  answer  to 
anybody  who  imagined  that  by  a  bare  majority  vote  of 
two  successive  General  Conventions  new  formularies  of 
daily  worship  could  be  forced  upon  the  Church.  But 
suppose  such  formularies  were  to  be  made  optional ; 
suppose  there  were  to  be  given  to  parishes  the  choice 
between  these  three  things,  viz. :  (a)  the  normal  Morn- 
ing Prayer  ;  (b)  a  shortened  form  of  the  normal  Morn- 
ing Prayer;  and  (c)  such  a  special  order  as  has  been 
sketched — what  then  ?  Would  the  Church's  liberty  be 
impaired!  On  the  contrary,  would  not  the  borders  of 
that  liberty  have  been  most  wisely  and  safely  widened 
by  the  steady  hand  of  law  ? 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  115 

This  is  perhaps  the  right  point  at  which  to  call  atten- 
tion to  the  present  state  of  the  "  shortened  services " 
controversy,  for  wearisome  as  the  story  has  become  by 
frequent  repetition,  the  nexus  between  it  and  the  subject 
in  hand  is  too  important  to  be  left  out  of  sight. 

In  the  General  Convention  of  1877,  where  the  topic 
under  its  American  aspects  was  for  the  first  time  thor- 
oughly discussed,  the  two  Houses  came  to  a  deadlock. 
The  deputies  on  the  one  hand,  almost  to  a  man,  voted 
in  favor  of  giving  the  desired  relief  by  rubric,  thus  post- 
poning for  three  years'  time  the  fruition  of  their  wish; 
while  the  bishops  with  a  unanimity  understood  to  have 
been  equally  striking  insisted  that  a  simple  canon,  such 
as  could  be  passed  at  once,  would  suffice.  And  so  the 
subject  dropped. 

At  the  late  Convention  of  1880  an  eirenicon  was  dis- 
covered. The  quick  eye  of  one  of  the  legal  members  of 
the  House  of  Deputies  detected  on  the  fourth  page  of 
the  Prayer  Book,  just  opposite  the  Preface,  a  loop- 
hole of  escape,  to  wit,  The  Ratification  of  the  Booh  of 
Common  Prayer.  Here  was  the  very  tertium  quid 
whereby  the  common  wish  of  both  parties  to  the  dis- 
pute might  be  effected  without  injury  to  the  sensibili- 
ties of  either. 

The  Ratification  certainly  did  not  look  like  a  canon; 
neither  could  anybody  with  his  eyes  open  call  it  a  rubric 
— why  not  amend  that,  and  say  no  more  about  it  ?  The 
suggestion  prevailed,  and  by  a  vote  of  both  Houses, 
the  following  extraordinary  document  is  hereafter  to 
stand  (the  next  General  Convention  consenting)  in  the 
very  fore-front  of  the  Prayer  Book  : 

The  Ratification  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 


116  REVISION   OP   THE 

By  the  Bishops,  the  Clergy,  and  the  Laity  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church  in  General  Convention  assem- 
bled. 

"  The  General  Convention  of  the  Church  having 
heretofore,  to  wit  :  on  the  sixteenth  day  of  October  in 
the  year  a.  d.  1*789,  set  forth  a  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments  and  other 
Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church,  and  thereby  estab- 
lished the  said  book,  and  declared  it  to  be  the  Liturgy 
of  said  Church,  and  required  that  it  be  received  as  such 
by  all  the  members  of  the  same  and  be  in  use  from  and 
after  the  first  day  of  October  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1*790  ;  the  same  book  is  hereby  ratified  and  confirmed, 
and  ordered  to  be  the  use  of  this  Church  from  this  time 
forth. 

"  But  note,  however,  that  on  days  other  than  Sundays, 
Christmas-day,  the  Epiphany,  Ash-Wednesday,  Good 
Friday,  and  Ascension  Day,  it  shall  suffice  if  the  Minister 
begins  Morning  or  Evening  Prayer  at  the  General  Con- 
fession or  the  Lord's  Prayer  preceded  by  one  or  more 
of  the  Sentences  appointed  at  the  beginning  of  Morning 
and  Evening  Prayer,  and  end  after  the  Collect  for  Grace 
or  the  Collect  for  Aid  against  Perils,  with  2  Cor.  xiii.  14, 
using  so  much  of  the  Lessons  appointed  for  the  day  and 
so  much  of  the  Psalter  as  he  shall  judge  to  be  for  edifi- 
cation. 

"  And  note  also  that  on  any  day  when  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayer  shall  have  been  duly  said  or  are  to  be 
said,  and  on  days  other  than  those  first  aforementioned, 
it  shall  suffice,  when  need  may  require,  if  a  sermon  or 
lecture  be  preceded  by  at  least  the  Lord's  Prayer  and 
one  or  more  Collects  found  in  this  book,  provided  that 


AMERICAN    COMMON   PRAYER.  11 1 

no  prayers  not  sefe  forth  in  said  book,  or  otherwise 
authorized  by  this  Church,  shall  be  used  before  or 
after  such  sermon  or  lecture.* 

"  And  note  further  also  that  on  any  day  the  Morning 
Prayer,  the  Litany,  or  the  Order  for  the  Administration 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  may  be  used  as  a  separate  and  in- 
dependent service,  provided  that  no  one  of  these  services 
shall  be  disused  habitually." 

It  may  seem  harsh  to  characterize  this  act  as  the 
mutilation  of  a  monument  ;  but  really  it  does  seem  to 
be  little  else.  The  old  Ratification  of  1789  is  an  historic 
landmark ;   it  is  the   sign-manual    of  the    Church   of 

*  In  connection  with  this  clause  there  sprang  up  an  animated 
and  interesting  debate  in  the  House  of  Deputies  as  to  the  wisdom 
of  thus  seeming  to  cut  off  every  opportunity  for  extemporary 
prayer  in  our  public  services.  Up  to  this  time,  it  was  alleged,  a 
liberty  had  existed  of  using  after  sermon,  if  the  preacher  were 
disposed  to  do  so,  the  "  free  prayer  "  which  before  sermon  it  was 
confessedly  not  permitted  him  to  have — why  thus  cut  off  peremp- 
torily an  ancient  privilege  ?  why  thus  sharply  annul  a  traditional 
if  not  a  chartered  right  ? 

At  first  sight  this  distinction  between  before  and  after  sermon 
looks  both  arbitrary  and  artificial,  but  when  examined  there  is 
found  to  be  a  reason  in  it.  The  sermon,  especially  in  the  case  of 
emotional  preachers,  is  a  sort  of  bridge  of  transition  from 
what  we  may  call  the  liturgical  to  the  spontaneous  mood  of  mind, 
and  if  the  speaker  has  carried  his  listeners  with  him  they  are 
across  the  bridge  at  the  same  moment  with  himself.  The  thing  that 
would  have  been  incongruous  before,  becomes  natural  after  the 
minister  has  been  for  some  time  speaking  less  in  his  priestly  than 
in  his  personal  character. 

The  notion  that  the  points  at  issue  between  the  advocates  of 
liturgical  and  the  advocates  of  extemporaneous  worship  can  be 
settled  by  a  promiscuous  jumbling  together  of  the  two  modes,  is  a 
fond  conceit,  as  the  Reformed  Episcopalians  will  doubtless  confess 


118  BE  VISION   OF   THE 

White's  and  Seabury's  day,  and  ought  never  to  be  dis- 
turbed or  tampered  with  while  the  Prayer  Book  stands. 
The  year  1889  might  very  properly  see  a  supplemental 
Ratification  written  under  it  ;  and  testifying  to  the  fact 
of  Revision  ;    but  to  write   into   that   venerable   text 

when  they  shall  have  had  time  enough  to  make  full  trial  of  the 
following  rubrics  in  their  Prayer-book  : 

TT  Then  shall  the  Minister  say  the  Collects  and  Prayers  following 
in  whole  or  in  'part,  or  others  at  his  discretion. 
TT  Sere  may  be  used   any  of  the   occasional  Prayers,  or  extem- 
poraneous Prayer. 

This  is  bad  philosophy.  It  need  not  be  said  that  such  direc- 
tions are  undevotional — for  doubtless  they  were  piously  meant ; 
but  it  must  be  said  that  they  are  inartistic  (if  the  word  may  be 
allowed),  at  variance  with  the  fitness  of  things  and  counter  to  the 
instinct  of  purity.  Formality  and  informality  are  two  things  that 
cannot  be  mingled  to  advantage.  There  is  place  and  time  for 
each.  The  secret  of  the  power  of  liturgical  worship  is  wrapped 
up  with  the  principle  of  order.  A  certain  majesty  lies  in  the 
movement  which  is  without  break.  On  the  other  hand  the  charm 
of  extemporaneous  devotion,  and  it  is  sometimes  a  very  real 
charm,  is  traceable  to  our  natural  interest  in  whatever  is  irregular, 
fresh,  and  spontaneous. 

To  suppose  that  we  can  secure  at  any  given  time  the  good 
effects  of  both  methods  by  some  trick  of  combination  is  an 
error — as  well  attempt  to  arrange  on  the  same  plot  of  ground  a 
French  and  an  English  garden.  If  indeed  Christian  people  could 
bring  themselves  to  acknowledge  frankly  the  legitimacy  of  both 
methods  and  provide  amicably  for  their  separate  use,  a  great  step 
forward  in  the  direction  of  Church  unity  would  have  been 
achieved  ;  but  for  a  catholicity  so  catholic  as  this,  public  opinion 
is  not  yet  ripe,  and  perhaps  may  not  be  ripe  for  centuries  to 
come.  Those  who  believe  in  the  excellency  of  liturgies,  while 
not  believing  in  them  as  jure  divino,  would  be  well  content  in 
such  a  case  to  wait  the  working  of  the  principle  of  the  survival  of 
the  fittest. 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  US 

special  directions  as  to  what  may  be  done  on  days  other 
than  Ash-Wednesday,  and  what  must  not  be  done  without 
2  Cor.  xiii.  14,  is  very  much  as  if  the  City  Government 
of  Cambridge  should  cause  to  be  cut  upon  the  stone 
under  the  Washington  elm  which  now  records  the  fact 
that  there  the  commander  of  the  American  armies  first 
drew  his  sword,  divers  and  sundry  additional  items  of 
information,  such  as  the  distance  to  Watertown,  the 
shortest  path  across  the  common,  etc.,  etc. 

Why  the  Convention  after  having  entrusted  to  a  Joint 
Committee,  by  a  decisive  vote,  the  task  of  devising 
means  for  securing  for  the  Prayer  Book  "increased 
flexibility  of  use,"  should  have  thought  it  necessary  sub- 
sequently to  take  up  with  this  compromise  of  a  com- 
promise (for  such  the  proposal  to  amend  the  Ratification 
really  is)  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Perhaps  it  was  with  the 
determination  to  have,  at  any  rate,  something  to  fall 
back  upon  in  case  the  larger  and  more  comprehensive 
measure  should  come  to  naught. 

The  rubric  is  confessedly  the  proper  place  for  direc- 
tions as  to  how  to  use  the  services,  and  but  for  the  very 
natural  and  defensible  objection  on  the  part  of  some  to 
touching  the  Prayer  Book  at  all,  there  never  would  have 
been  any  question  about  it.*     This  objection   having 

*The  able  and  fair-minded  jurist  who  first  hit  upon  this 
ingenious  scheme  for  patching  the  Ratification  has  lately,  with 
characteristic  frankness,  said  substantially  this  under  his  own 
signature. 

"The  proper  place  for  the  amendment,"  he  writes,  "is  at  the 
end  of  the  first  rubric  preceding  the  sentences  of  Scripture  for  both 
Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,  after  the  word  Scripture,  as  every- 
one can  see  by  looking."  He  adds:  "This,  however,  is  only  a 
question  of  form,  and  ought  not  to  interfere  with  the  adoption  of 


120  REVISION   OF   THE 

been  at  last  waived,  a  straight  path  is  now  open  to  the 
end  desired,  and  it  ought  to  be  followed  even  at  the 
cost  of  three  years  more  of  delay. 

Returning  to  the  general  subject,  and  still  following 
the  order  of  the  Table  of  Contents,  we  come  to  Prayers 
and  Thanksgivings  upon  several  Occasions. 

Here  it  would  be  well  to  note  more  intelligibly  than 
is  done  by  the  present  rubric  the  proper  places  for  the 
introduction  of  the  Prayers  and  the  Thanksgivings, 
providing  for  the  use  of  the  former  before,  and  of  the 
latter  after  the  General  Thanksgiving. 

As  to  the  deficiencies  in  this  department  let  the  late 
Dr.  Muhlenberg  speak. 

"  The  Prayer  Book,"  he  says,  "  is  not  undervalued  as 
to  its  treasures  in  asserting  its  wants.  The  latter  can- 
not be  denied.  Witness  the  meagre  amount  of  New 
Testament  prayer  and  praise  for  the  round  of  festivals 
and  fasts  ;  the  absence  of  any  forms  suited  to  the  pecul- 
iar circumstances  of  our  own  Church  and  country  and 
to  the  times  we  live  in  ;  or  for  our  benevolent  and  edu- 
cational institutions.  There  are  no  prayers  for  the 
increase  of  Ministers,  for  Missions,  or  Missionaries,  for 
the  Christian  teaching  of  the  young  ;  for  sponsors  on 
occasions  of  Baptism  ;  for  persons  setting  out  on  long 
journeys  by  land,  quite  as  perilous  as  voyages  by  sea  ; 

the  amendment  at  the  next  Convention.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  resolution  for  enrichment,  so  called,  will  present  a  variety 
of  additions  out  of  which  an  acceptable  selection  can  be  made  ; 
and  when  they  are  finally  carried  that  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  will  be  not  only  the  standard  book,  but  a  sealed  book,  so 
to  speak,  for  as  many  generations  as  have  passed  since  the 
present  book  was  adopted."— Letter  of  the  Hon.  J.  B.  Howe  of 
Indiana  in  The  Churchman  for  January  29,  1881 , 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PEAYEK.  121 

for  the  sick  desiring  the  prayers  of  the  Church  when 
there  is  no  prospect  of  or  desire  for  recovery  ;  for  the 
bereaved  at  funerals,  and  many  other  occasions  for 
which  there  might  as  well  be  provision  as  for  those  few 
for  which  we  already  have  the  occasional  prayers."  * 

After  the  Prayers  and  Thanksgivings  come  The 
Collects,  Epistles,  and  Gospels.  Here  again  there  is 
some  room  for  enrichment.  Distinctive  collects  for  the 
first  four  days  of  Holy  Week,  for  Monday  and  Tuesday 
in  Easter  Week,  and  for  Monday  and  Tuesday  in  Whit- 
sun  Week,  would  add  very  materially  to  our  liturgical 
wealth,  while  there  would  seem  to  be  no  reason  what- 
ever why  they  should  not  be  had.  It  would  also  serve 
to  enhance  the  symmetry  of  the  Christian  Year  if  the 
old  feast  of  the  Transfiguration  f  (August  6)  were  to  be 
restored  to  its  place  among  the  recognized  holy  days  of 
the  Church  and  given  its  proper  collect,  epistle,  and 
gospel. 

There  are  some  liturgists  who  desire  the  restoration 
of  the  introits  of  the  First  Book  of  Edward  VI.     The 

*See  page  578  of  Evangelical  Catholic  Papers.  A  collection 
of  Essays,  Letters,  and  Tractates  from  "Writings  of  Rev.  Wm. 
Augustus  Muhlenberg,  D.  D.,  during  the  last  forty  years. 

The  failure  of  this  devout  and  venerated  man  to  secure  sundry 
much  desired  liturgical  improvements  (although  it  yet  remains  to 
be  seen  whether  the  failure  has  been  total)  was  perhaps  due  to  a 
certain  vagueness  inherent  in  his  plans  of  reform.  A  clear  vision 
of  the  very  thing  desired  seems  to  have  been  lacking,  or  at  least 
the  gift  of  imparting  it  to  others.  But  even  as  no  man  has  de- 
served better  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church  than  he,  so  it  is 
no  more  than  right  that  his  deeply  cherished  wishes  should  be  had 
in  careful  remembrance. 

f  Now  a  "  black-letter  day"  in  the  English  Calendar, 


122  REVISION    OF    THE 

introit  (so  called  from  being  the  psalm  sung  when  the 
priest  goes  within  the  altar-rails)  has  been  in  modern 
usage  replaced  by  a  metrical  hymn.  A  sufficient  reason 
for  not  printing  the  introit  for  each  day  in  full,  just 
before  the  collect,  as  was  the  mode  in  Edward's  Book,  is 
that  to  do  so  would  involve  a  costly  sacrifice  of  room. 
A  compromise  course  would  be  to  insert  between  the 
title  of  each  Sunday  or  holyday  and  the  collect  proper 
to  it,  a  simple  numerical  reference  stating  whereabouts 
in  the  Psalter  the  introit  for  the  day  is  to  be  found,  and 
adding  perhaps  the  Latin  catchwords.  Any  attempt  to 
make  the  use  of  the  introit  obligatory  in  our  times  would 
meet  with  deserved  failure  ;  the  metrical  hymn  has 
gained  too  firm  a  hold  upon  the  affections  of  the  Church 
at  large  ever  to  be  willingly  surrendered. 

Coming,  next,  to  the  orders  for  the  administration  of 
the  two  sacraments,  we  find  ourselves  on  delicate  ground, 
where  serious  change  of  any  sort  is  out  of  the  question. 
Permission,  under  certain  circumstances,  still  further  to 
abbreviate  the  Office  of  the  Communion  of  the  Sick 
might,  however,  be  sought  without  giving  reasonable 
cause  of  alarm  to  any,  and  general  consent  might  per- 
haps also  be  had  for  a  provision  with  respect  to  the 
Exhortation,  "Dearly  beloved  in  the  Lord,"  that  in 
"  Churches  where  there  is  frequent  Communion  it  shall 
suffice  to  read  the  Exhortation  above  written  once  in  a 
month  on  the  Lord's  Day."  * 

There   are   three   liturgical   features  of  the  Scottish 

Communion  Office  which  some  have  thought  might  be 

advantageously  transferred  to  our  own  service.     They 

are  (a)  the  inserting  after  Christ's  summary  of  the  Law 

*  The  Convocation  Prayer  Book,  in  loc. 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  123 

a  response,  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us  and  write  these 
thy  laws  in  our  hearts,  we  beseech  thee  ;  (b)  the  repeating 
by  the  people,  after  the  reading  of  the  Gospel,  of  a  for- 
mula of  thanks  corresponding  to  the  Glory  be  to  thee,  O 
Lord,  that  precedes  it ;  and  (c)  the  saying  or  singing  of 
an  Offertory  sentence  at  the  presentation  of  the  alms. 
Upon  these  suggested  enrichments  the  present  writer 
offers  no  opinion. 

In  the  Order  of  Confirmation  a  substitution  for  the 
present  preface  *  of  a  responsive  opening,  in  which  the 
bishop  should  charge  the  minister  to  present  none  but 
such  as  he  has  found  by  personal  inquiry  "  apt  and 
meet "  for  the  reception  of  the  rite  would  be  a  marked 
improvement. 

The  remaining  Occasional  Offices  would  seem  to  de- 
mand no  change  either  in  structure  or  contents,  although 
in  some,  perhaps  in  all  of  them,  additional  rubrics  would 
be  helpful  to  worshippers. 

Some  addition  to  the  number  of  Occasional  Offices 
would  be  a  real  gain.  We  need,  for  instance,  a  short 
Office  for  the  Burial  of  Infants  and  Young  Children  ;  a 
Daybreak  Office  for  Great  Festivals  ;  an  Office  for  Mid- 
day Prayer ;  an  Office  of  Prayer  in  behalf  of  Missions 
and  Missionaries ;  an  Office  for  the  Setting  apart  of  a 
Layman  as  a  Reader,  or  as  a  Missionary ;  a  Form  of 
Prayer  at  the  Laying  of  a  Corner-stone  ;  and  possibly 
some  others.  It  is  evident  that  these  new  formularies 
might  give  opportunity  for  the  introduction  of  hitherto 
unused  collects,  anthems,  and  benedictions  of  a  sort  that 
would  greatly  enhance  the  general  usefulness  of  the 
Prayer  Book. 

*  Originally  only  an  explanatory  rubric.    See  Procter,  p.  397. 


124  REVISION    OF   THE 

This  completes  the  survey  of  the  field  of  "  liturgical 
enrichment."  A  full  discussion  of  the  allied  topic, 
"flexibility  of  use,"  would  involve  the  examination  in 
detail  of  all  the  rubrics  of  the  Prayer  Book,  and  for  this 
there  is  no  room.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  unless  the 
rubrics,  the  hinges  and  joints  of  a  service-book,  are  kept 
well  oiled,  much  creaking  is  a  necessary  result.  There 
are  turning-points  in  our  public  worship  where  congrega- 
tions almost  invariably  betray  an  awkward  embarrass- 
ment, simply  because  there  is  nothing  to  tell  them 
whether  they  are  expected  to  stand  or  to  sit  or  to  kneel. 
It  is  easy  to  sneer  at  such  points  as  trifles  and  to  make  sport 
of  those  who  call  attention  to  them  ;  but  if  it  is  worth 
our  while  to  have  ritual  worship  at  all  it  is  also  worth 
our  while  to  make  the  directions  as  to  how  people  are  to 
behave  adequate,  explicit,  plain.  A  lofty  contempt  for 
detail  is  not  the  token  of  good  administration  either  in 
Church  or  State.  To  the  list  of  defective  rubrics  add 
those  that  are  confessedly  obsolete  and  such  as  are  pal- 
pably contradictory  and  we  have  a  bill  of  particulars 
that  would  amply  justify  a  rubrical  revision  of  the 
Prayer  Book  even  if  nothing  more  were  to  be  attempted. 

There  is  another  reason.  Far  more  rapidly  than 
many  people  imagine,  we  are  drifting  away  from  the 
position  of  a  Church  that  worships  by  liturgy  to  that  of 
a  Church  worshipping  by  directory.  The  multiplicity 
of  "  uses  "  that  vexed  the  Anglican  Reformers  is  in  our 
day  multiplied  four-fold.  To  those  who  honestly  con- 
sider a  directory  a  better  thing  than  a  liturgy  this 
process  of  relaxation  is  most  welcome,  but  for  others 
who  hold  that,  until  the  binding  clauses  of  a  Book  of 
Common   Prayer  have  been  formally  rescinded,  they 


AMERICAN    COMMON    PRAYER.  125 

ought  to  be  observed,  the  spectacle  is  the  reverse  of 
edifying.  They  would  much  prefer  seeing  the  channels 
of  liberty  opened  at  the  touch  of  law,  and  this  is  one  of 
their  chief  reasons  for  advocating  revision. 

Two  questions  remain  untouched,  both  of  them  of 
great  practical  importance.  Could  the  Prayer  Book  be 
enriched  to  the  extent  suggested  in  this  paper  without  a 
serious  and  most  undesirable  increase  in  its  bulk  as  a 
volume  ? 

Even  supposing  this  were  possible,  is  it  at  all  likely 
that  the  Church  could  be  persuaded  to  accept  the 
amended  book  ? 

Unless  the  first  of  these  two  eminently  proper  ques- 
tions can  be  met,  there  is,  or  ought  to  be,  an  end  to  all 
talk  about  revision.  The  advantage  to  a  Church  of  be- 
ing able  to  keep  all  its  authoritative  formularies  of  wor- 
ship within  the  compass  of  a  single  volume  is  inesti- 
mable. Even  the  present  enforced  severance  of  the 
Hymnal  from  the  Prayer  Book  is  a  misfortune.* 

Those  were  good  days  when  "  Bible  and  Prayer  Book  " 
was  the  Churchman's  all  sufficient  formula  so  far  as  vol- 
umes were  concerned. 

Rome  boasts  a  much  larger  ritual  variety  than  ours, 
but  she  secures  it  by  multiplying  books.  The  Missal  is 
in  one  volume,  the  Breviary  in  four,  the  Pontifical,  the 
Ritual,  and  the  Ceremonial  in  one  each,  making  eight  in 
all.f  This  is  an  evil,  and  one  from  which  we  Anglicans 
have   had   a   happy  escape.     It  was  evidently  with  a 

*  Let  us  hope  that  before  long  there  may  be  devised  some 
better  way  of  providing  relief  for  our  Widows  and  Orphans  than 
that  of  the  indirect  taxation  of  the  singers  of  hymns. 

f  The  Greek  Office  Books,  it  is  said,  fill  eighteen  quartos. 


126  REVISION    OF    THE 

great  groan  of  relief  that  the  Church  of  England  shook 
herself  free  from  the  whole  host  of  service-books,  and 
established  her  one  only  volume.  It  behooves  us  to  be 
watchful  how  we  take  a  single  step  towards  becoming 
entangled  in  the  old  meshes.* 

But  need  the  enrichment  of  the  Prayer  Book — such 
enrichment  as  has  been  described,  necessarily  involve 
an  unwieldiness  in  the  volume,  or,  what  would  be  still 
worse,  an  overflow  into  a  supplement  ?  Certainly  not  ; 
for  by  judicious  management  every  change  advocated  in 
this  paper,  and  more  besides,  might  be  accomplished 
without  transgressing  by  so  much  as  a  page  or  a  para- 
graph the  limits  of  the  present  standard  book.  All  the 
space  needed  could  be  secured  by  the  simple  expedient 
of  omitting  matter  that  has  been  found  by  actual  ex- 
perience to  be  superfluous.  Redundancy  and  un- 
necessary repetition  are  to  the  discredit  of  a  book  that 
enjoys  such  an  unrivalled  reputation  as  the  Common 
Prayer.  They  are  blemishes  upon  the  face  of  its  literary 
perfectness.  Who  has  not  marvelled  at  the  strange 
duplication  of  the  Litany  and  the  Office  of  the  Holy 
Communion  in  the  Ordinal,  when  the  special  petitions 
proper  to  those  services  when  used  in  that  connection 
might  easily  have  been  printed  by  themselves  with  a 
direction  that  they  be  inserted  in  the  appointed  place  ? 

*  In  that  naive  and  racy  bit  of  English  (omitted  in  our  Amer- 
ican book)  entitled  Concerning  the  Service  of  tlie  Church,  one  of  the 
very  choicest  morsels  is  the  following  :  "  Moreover,  the  number 
and  hardness  of  the  Rules  called  the  Pie,  "and  the  manifold 
changings  of  the  Service,  was  the  cause,  that  to  turn  the  Book 
only  was  so  hard  and  intricate  a  matter,  that  many  times  there 
was  more  business  to  find  out  what  should  be  read  than  to  read  it 
when  it  was  found  out." 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  127 

Scholars,  of  course,  know  perfectly  well  how  this  came 
about.  The  Ordinal  does  not  belong  to  the  Prayer  Book 
proper,  but  has  a  separate  identity  of  its  own.  When 
printed  as  a  book  by  itself  it  is  all  very  well  that  it 
should  include  the  Litany  and  the  Holy  Communion  in 
full,  but  why  allow  these  superfluous  pages  to  crowd  out 
others  that  are  really  needed  ?  * 

It  has  already  been  explained  how  the  room  now  oc- 
cupied by  the  "  Selections  "  might  be  economized,  and 
by  the  same  simple  device  the  space  engrossed  by  divers 
psalms  here  and  there  in  the  Occasional  Offices,  e.  g., 
Psalm  li  in  the  Visitation  of  Prisoners,  and  Psalm 
cxxx  in  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick  could  be  made  avail- 
able for  other  use. 

Again,  why  continue  to  devote  a  quarter  of  a  page  of 
precious  space  to  the  "  Prayer  for  imprisoned  debtors," 
seeing  that  now*  for  a  long  time  past,  there  has  been  no 
such  thing  in  the  United  States  as  imprisonment  for 
debt  ?  By  availing  ourselves  of  only  a  portion  of  these 
possible  methods  of  garnering  space,  all  that  is  desired 

*  It  may  be  wise  to  buttress  the  position  taken  with  a  quotation 
out  of  Dr.  Coit. 

"  We  really,  however,  do  not  see  any  necessity  for  either  of 
these  Services  in  American  Books,  as  with  us  the  Ordinal  always, 
now,  makes  a  part  of  the  Prayer  Book  in  all  editions.  It  would  be 
a  saving  to  expunge  them  and  no  change  would  be  necessary,  ex- 
cept the  introduction  of  such  a  litanical  petition  and  suffrage  with 
the  Services  for  Deacons  and  Priests,  as  already  exists  in  the  Ser- 
vice for  Bishops.  The  Church  of  England  retains  the  Litany  in 
her  Ordinal,  for  that,  until  latterly,  was  printed  in  a  separate 
book,  and  was  not  to  be  had  unless  ordered  expressly.  And  yet 
with  even  such  a  practice  she  has  but  one  Communion  Service. 
We  study  cheapness  and  expedition  in  our  day.  They  can  both 
be  consulted  here,  salvafide  et  salva  ecclesia."— Report  of  1844. 


128  REVISION   OF   THE 

might  be  accomplished,  without  making  the  Prayer  Book 
bulkier  by  a  single  leaf  than  it  is  to-day. 

But  would  a  Pra3rer  Book  thus  enriched  be  accepted 
by  the  Church  at  large  ?  Is  there  any  reason  to  think 
that  the  inertia  which  inheres  in  all  large  bodies,  and  to 
a  singularly  marked  degree  in  our  own  Communion, 
could  be  overcome  ?  The  General  Convention  can  give 
an  approximate  answer  to  these  questions  ;  it  cannot 
settle  them  decisively,  for  it  is  a  body  which  mirrors 
only  to  a  certain  extent  the  real  mind  and  temper  of  the 
constituencies  represented  in  it.  One  thing  is  certain,that 
only  by  allowing  fullest  possible  play  to  the  principle  of 
"  local  option  "  could  any  wholly  new  piece  of  work  on  the 
part  of  revisionists,  however  excellent  it  might  be  in  itself 
considered, find  acceptance.  To  allowf eatures  introduced 
into  the  body  of  an  existing  service  to  be  accounted 
optional,  would  indeed  be  impossible,  without  gendering 
the  very  wildest  confusion.  Upon  such  points  the 
Church  would  have  to  decide  outright,  for  or  against, 
and  stand  by  her  decisions.  But  as  respects  every  ad- 
ditional and  novel  Office  proposed,  the  greatest  care 
ought  to  be  taken  to  have  the  indefinite  An  rather  than 
the  definite  The  prefixed  to  it.  Before  such  new  uses 
are  made  binding  on  all,  they  must  have  met  and  en- 
dured the  test  of  thorough  trial  by  some.  This  is 
only  fair. 

But  there  is  a  limit,  it  must  be  remembered,  in  the 
Church's  case  to  the  binding  power  of  precedent  and 
prescription.  The  social  order  changes,  and  of  these 
tides  that  ebb  and  flow  it  is  our  bounden  duty  to  take 
note.  Had  mere  aversion  to  change,  dogged  unwilling- 
ness to  venture  an  experiment  always  carried  the  day, 


AMERICAN   COMMON   PRAYER.  129 

instead  of  having  the  "  Prayer  Book  as  it  is,"  we  should 
still  be  drearily  debating  the  rival  merits  of  Hereford 
and  Sarum.  The  great  question  to  be  settled  is,  Does 
an  emergency  exist  serious  enough  to  warrant  an  attempt 
on  our  part  to  make  better  what  we  know  already  to  be 
good  ?  Is  the  Republic  expecting  of  us,  and  reasonably 
expecting  of  us,  greater  things  than  with  our  present 
equipment  we  are  quite  able  to  accomplish  ?  There  are 
eyes  that  think  they  see  a  great  future  before  this 
Church — are  they  right,  or  is  it  only  mirage  ?  At  any 
rate  [ours  is  no  return  trip — we  are  outward  bound. 
The  ship  is  cutting  new  and  untried  waters  with  her  keel 
at  every  moment.  There  is  no  occasion  to  question  the 
sufficiency  of  either  compass  or  helm,  but  in  certain  mat- 
ters of  a  practical  sort  there  is  a  demand  upon  us  to  use 
judgment,  we  are  bound  to  give  a  place  in  our  seaman- 
ship to  present  common-sense  as  well  as  to  respect  for 
ancient  usage,  and  along  with  it  all  to  feel  some  confi- 
dence that  if  the  ship  is  what  we  think  her  to  be,  "  the 
winds  of  God  "  may  be  trusted  to  bring  her  safely  into 
port. 


THE  BOOK  ANNEXED  :  ITS  CRITICS  AND  ITS 
PROSPECTS. 


THE  BOOK  ANNEXED :  ITS  CRITICS  AND  ITS 
PROSPECTS.* 


Fiest,  last,  and  always  this  is  to  be  said  with  respect 
to  the  revision  of  the  American  Common  Prayer,  that 
unless  we  can  accomplish  it  with  hearty  good  feeling 
the  attempt  at  improvement  ought  to  be  abandoned 
altogether. 

The  day  has  gone  by  when  new  formularies  of  wor- 
ship could  be  imposed  on  an  unwilling  Church  by  edict, 
and  although  under  our  carefully  guarded  system  of 
ecclesiastical  legislation  there  is  little  danger  of  either 
haste  .or  unfairness,  we  must  bear  it  well  in  mind  that 
something  more  than  "  a  constitutional  majority  of  both 
houses"  is  needful  if  we  would  see  liturgical  revision 
crowned  with  real  success.  Of  course,  absolute  unan- 
imity is  not  to  be  expected.  Every  improvement  that 
the  world  has  seen  was  greeted  at  its  birth  by  a  chorus 
of  select  voices  sounding  the  familiar  anthem,  "  The  old 
is  better"  ;  and  the  generation  of  those,  who,  in  the 
sturdy  phrase  of  King  James's  revisers,  "give  liking 
unto  nothing  but  what  is  framed  by  themselves,  and 
hammered  on  their  anvil,"  will  be  always  with  us.  But 
substantial  unanimity  may  exist,  even  when  absolute 
unanimity  is  impossible,  and  if  anything  like  as  gen- 

*  First  printed  in  The  Church  Review,  1886. 

133 


134  THE   BOOK   ANNEXED  J 

eral  a  consent  can  be  secured  for  revision  in  1886  as 
was  given  to  it  in  1883,  the  friends  of  the  movement 
will  have  good  reason  to  be  satisfied. 

That  there  has  been,  since  the  publication  of  The 
Book  Annexed  as  Modified,  a  certain  measure  of  re- 
action against  the  spirit  of  change  must  be  evident  to 
all  who  watch  carefully  the  pulse  of  public  opinion  in 
the  Church.  Whether  this  reaction  be  as  serious  as 
some  imagine,  whether  it  have  good  reasons  to  allege, 
and  whether  it  be  not  already  giving  tokens  of  spent 
force,  are  points  which  in  the  present  paper  will  be 
touched  only  incidentally,  for  the  writer's  purpose  is 
rather  irenic  than  polemical,  and  he  is  more  concerned 
to  remove  misapprehensions  and  allay  fears  than  to  seek 
the  fading  leaf  of  a  controversial  victory. 

LIMITATIONS. 

No  estimate  of  the  merits  and  demerits  of  The  Book 
Annexed  can  be  a  just  one  that  leaves  out  of  account 
the  limitations  under  which  the  framers  of  it  did  their 
work.  These  limitations  were  not  unreasonable  ones. 
It  was  right  and  proper  that  they  should  be  imposed. 
There  is  no  good  ground  for  a  belief  that  the  time  will 
ever  come  when  a  "blank  cheque,"  to  borrow  Mr. 
Goschen's  mercantile  figure,  will  be  given  to  any  com- 
pany of  liturgical  revisers  to  fill  out  as  they  may  see  fit. 
But  the  moulders  of  forms,  in  whatever  department  of 
plastic  art  their  specialty  lies,  when  challenged  to 
show  cause  why  their  work  is  deficient  in  symmetry  or 
completeness,  have  an  undoubted  right  to  plead  in  reply 
the  character  of  the  conditions  under  which  they 
labored.     The  present  instance  offers  no  exception   to 


ITS    CRITICS    AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  135 

the  general  rule.  In  the  first  place,  a  distinct  pledge 
was  given  in  the  House  of  Deputies,  in  1880,  before 
consent  to  the  appointment  of  the  Joint  Commit- 
tee was  secured,  that  in  case  such  permission  to  launch 
a  movement  in  favor  of  revision  as  was  asked  for  were 
to  be  granted,  no  attempt  would  be  made  seriously  to 
change  the  Liturgy  proper,  namely,  the  Office  of  the 
Holy  Communion. 

The  question  was  distinctly  asked  by  a  clerical 
deputy  from  the  diocese  of  Maryland,*  Do  you  desire  to 
modify  the  Office  of  the  Holy  Communion  ?  and  it  was 
as  distinctly  answered  by  the  mover  of  the  resolution 
under  which  the  Joint  Committee  was  finally  appointed, 
No,  we  do  not.  It  is  true  that  such  a  pledge,  made  by 
a  single  member  of  one  House,  could  only  measurably 
control  the  action  of  a  Joint  Committee  in  which  both 
Houses  were  to  be  represented  ;  but  it  is  equally  plain 
that  the  maker  of  the  pledge  was  in  honor  bound  to  do 
all  in  his  power  to  secure  the  observance  of  its  terms. 

Let  this  historical  fact  be  noted  by  those  who  are  dis- 
posed to  complain  that  the  Joint  Committee  did  not  pull 
to  pieces  and  entirely  rearrange  the  Anglo-Scoto-Amer- 
ican  Office,  which  now  for  a  long  time,  and  until  quite 
recently,  we  have  been  taught  to  esteem  the  nearest 
possible  approach  to  liturgical  perfection. 

Under  this  same  head]  of  "  limitations  "  must  be  set 
down  the  following  resolutions  passed  by  the  Joint 
Committee  itself,  at  its  first  regular  meeting  : 

Resolved,  That  this  Committee  asserts,  at  the  outset,  its  con- 
viction that  no  alteration  should  be  made  touching  either  state- 
ments or  standards  of  doctrine  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

*  The  Rev.  Dr.  Orlando  Hutton. 


136  THE  book  annexed: 

Eesolved,  That  this  Committee,  in  all  its  suggestions  and  acts, 
be  guided  by  those  principles  of  liturgical  construction  and  ritual 
use  which  have  guided  the  compilation  and  amendments  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  have  made  it  what  it  is. 

It  was  manifestly  impossible,  under  resolutions  like 
these,  to  depart  very  widely  from  established  precedent, 
or  in  any  serious  measure  to  disturb  the  foundations  of 
things. 

The  first  of  them  shut  out  wholly  the  consideration  of 
such  questions  as  the  reinstatement  of  the  Athanasian 
Creed  or  the  proposal  to  make  optional  the  use  of  the 
word  "  regenerate  "  in  the'Baptismal  Offices  ;  while  the 
other  forbade  the  introduction  of^such  sentimental  and 
grotesque  conceits  as  "  An  Office  for  the  Blessing  of 
Candles,"  "An  Office  for  the  Benediction  of  a  Life- 
boat," and  "  An  Office  for  the  Reconciliation  of  a 
Lapsed  Cleric."  * 

Still  another  very  serious  limitation,  and  one  especially 
unfriendly  to  that  perfectness  of  contour  which  wre 
naturally  look  to  see  in  a  liturgical  formulary,  grew  out 
of  the  tender  solicitude  of  the  Committee  for  what  may 
be  called  the  vested  rights ^of  [congregations.  There 
was  a  strong  reluctance  to  the  cutting  away  even  of 
what  might  seem  to  be  dead  wood,  lest  there  should 
ensue,  or  be  thought  to  ensue,  the  loss  of  something 
really  valuable. 

It  was  only  as  the  result  of  much  painstaking  effort, 
and  only  at  some  sacrifice  of  literary  fastidiousness,  that 
the  Committee  was  enabled  to  report  a  book  of  which 
it  could  be  said  that,  while  it  added  much  of  possible 
enrichment,  it  took  away  almost  nothing  that  had  been 

*  Priest's  Prayer  Book,  Fifth  edition,  pp.  238,  243,  281. 


ITS    CRITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  137 

in  actual  possession.*  There  could  be  no  better  illus- 
tration of  this  point  than  is  afforded  by  certain  of  the 
alterations  proposed  to  be  made  in  the  Order  for  Even- 
ing Prayer. 

The  Committee  felt  assured  that  upon  no  point  was 
the  judgment  of  the  Church  likely  to  be  more  unani- 
mous than  in  approving  the  restoration  to  their  time- 
honored  home  in  the  Evening  Office  of  Magnificat  and 
Nunc  dimittis,  and  yet  so  unwilling  were  they  to  dis- 
place Bonum  est  confiteri  and  Benedic  anima  mea  from 
positions  they  have  only  occupied  since  1789  that  they 
authorized  the  unquestionably  clumsy  expedient  of 
printing  three  responds  to  each  Lesson. 

Probably  a  large  majority  of  the  Committee  would 
have  preferred  to  drop  Bonum  est  confiteri  and  Benedic 
anima  mea  altogether,  retaining  Cantate  Domino  and 
Deus  miser eatur  as  the  sole  alternates  to  the  two  Gospel 
canticles,  as  in  the  English  Book,  but  rather  than  have 
a  thousand  voices  cry  out,  as  it  was  believed  they  would 
cry  out,  "  You  have  robbed  us,"  the  device  of  a  second 
alternate  was  adopted,  to  the  sad  defacement  of  the 
printed  page.  In  may  be  charged  that,  in  thus  choos- 
ing, the  Committee  betrayed  timidity,  and  that  a  wise 
boldness  would  have  been  the  better  course  ;  but  if  ac- 
count be  taken  of  the  attitude  consistently  maintained 
by  General  Convention  towards  any  proposition  for 
the  change  of  so  much  as  a  comma  in  the  Prayer  Book, 
during  a  period  of  fifty  years  prior  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  The  Book  Annexed,  it  will  perhaps  be 
concluded  that  for  the   characterization  of  the   Com- 

*  The  Prayer  for  Imprisoned  Debtors  is  believed  to  be  the  only 
formulary  actually  dropped. 


138  THE  book  annexed: 

mittee's  policy  timidity  is  scarcely  so  proper  a  word 
as  caution. 

SPECIAL   CRITICISMS. 

(a)  Foreign. 

As  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  opinion  at  home  has 
been  very  considerably  affected  by  foreign  criticism  of 
The  Book  Annexed,  it  will  be  well  at  this  point  to  give 
some  attention  to  what  has  been  said  in  English  journals 
in  review  of  the  work  thus  far  accomplished.  The  more 
noteworthy  of  the  foreign  criticisms  are  those  contained 
in  T7ie  Church  Quarterly  Review,  The  Church  Times,  and 
The  Guardian.* 

The  Church  Quarterly  reviewer  opens  with  an  expres- 
sion of  deep  regret  at  "  the  failure  to  take  advantage  of 
the  opportunity  for  reinstating  the  Athanasian  Creed." 
As  already  observed,  no  such  opportunity  existed.  By 
formal  vote  the  Joint  Committee  debarred  itself  from 
any  proceeding  of  this  sort,  and  the  Convention,  which 
sat  in  judgment  on  its  work,  was  manifestly  of  opinion 
that  in  so  acting  the  Committee  had  rightly  interpreted 
its  charter. 

The  reviewer,  who  is  in  full  sympathy  with  the  move- 
ment for  enrichment  as  such,  goes  on  to  recommend,  as 
a  more  excellent  way  than  that  followed  in  The  Book 
Annexed,  the  compilation  of 

An  Appendix  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  to  contain  the  much 
needed  Additional  Services  for  both  Sunday  and  other  use  in 
churches,  in  mission  chapels/ and  in  religious  communities,  as 

*  The  Church  Quarterly  Review  for  April,  1884,  and  July,  1884. 
The  Church  Times  for  August  29,  1884  ;  also  July  31,  August  7, 
14,  21,  28,  September  4,  1885.     The  Guardian  for  Ju?y  20,  1885. 


ITS   CRITICS   AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  139 

well  as  a  full  supply  of  Occasional  Prayers  and  Tlmnlcsgimngs  for 
objects  and  purposes,  missionary  and  otherwise,  which  are  as  yet 
entirely  unrepresented  in  our  Offices. 

There  are  obvious  reasons  why  this  device  should  com- 
mend itself  to  an  English  Churchman,  for  it  is  unlikely 
that  anything  better  than  this,  or,  indeed,  anything 
one  half  so  satisfactory,  could  be  secured  by  Act  of 
Parliament. 

For  something  very  much  better  than  this,  however, 
a  self -governed  Church,  like  our  owrn,  has  a  right 'to 
look,  and,  in  all  probability,  will  continue  to  look  until 
the  thing  is  found.  An  Appendix  to  a  manual  of  wor- 
ship, whether  the  manual  be  Prayer  Book  or  Hymnal,* 
is  and  cannot  but  be,  from  the  very  nature  of  things,  a 
blemish  to  the  eye,  an  embarrassment  to  the  hand,  and 
a  vexation  to  the  spirit.  Such  addenda  carry  on  their 
face  the  suggestion  that  they  are  makeshifts,  postscripts, 
after-thoughts  ;  and  in  their  lack  of  dignity,  as  well  as 
of  convenience,  pronounce  their  own  condemnation. 

Moreover,  in  our  particular  case,  no  "  Appendix," 
"  Prymer,"  or  "  Authorized  Vade-mecum  "  could  accom- 
plish the  ends  that  are  most  of  all  desired.  Fancy  put- 
ting the  Magnificat ',  the  Nunc  dimittis,  the  Versicles 
that  follow  the  Creed,  and  the  "  Lighten  our  darkness" 
into  an  "  Appendix."  It  wTould  be  the  defeat  of  our 
main  object. 

Then,  too,  this  is  to  be  remembered,  that  in  order  to 
secure  a  "  fully  authorized  Appendix,"  we,  in  this  country, 
should  be  obliged  to  follow  precisely  the  same  legal 
process  we  follow  in  altering  the  Prayer  Book.  If  an 
Occasional  Office  cannot  pass  the  ordeal  of  the  criticism 
*  Recall  the  "  Additional  Hymns"  of  1868. 


140  THE    BOOK    ANNEXED  : 

of  two  successive  Conventions,  it  ought  not  to  be  set 
forth  at  all  ;  if  it  can  and  does  stand  that  test,  then  it 
ought  to  be  inserted  in  the  Prayer  Book  in  the  particular 
place  where  it  most  appropriately  belongs  and  may  most 
readily  be  found. 

Moreover,  it  should  be  remembered  that  one,  and  by 
no  means  the  least  efficient,  of  the  causes  that  brought 
the  Common  Prayer  into  existence  in  the  sixteenth 
century  was  disgust  at  the  multiplication  of  service- 
books.  We  American  Churchmen  have  two  already  ; 
let  us  beware  of  adding  a  third. 

The  critic  of  The  Quarterly  was  probably  unacquainted 
with  the  fact  that  in  the  American  Episcopal  Church  the 
experimental  setting  forth  of  Offices  "  for  optional  and 
discretional  use  "  is  not  possible  under  the  terms  of  the 
Constitution.  We  either  must  adopt  outright  and  for 
permanent  use,  or  else  peremptorily  reject  whatever  is 
urged  upon  us  in  the  name  of  liturgical  improvement. 

Entering  next  upon  a  detailed  criticism  of  the  con- 
tents of  The  Booh  Annexed  the  writer  proceeds  to  offer 
a  number  of  suggestions,  some  of  them  of  great  value. 
He  pleads  earnestly  and  with  real  force  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Lord's  Prayer  to  its  "  place  of  honor "  be- 
tween the  Creed  and  the  Preces,  showing,  in  a  passage 
of  singular  beauty,  how  the  whole  daily  office  "  may  be 
said  to  have  grown  out  of,  or  radiated  from,  or  been 
crystallized  round  the  central  Pater  noster"  even  as 
"from  the  Words  of  Institution  has  grown  the  Christian 
Liturgy." 

The  critic  has  only  praise  for  the  amendments  in  the 
Office  for  Thanksgiving  Day  ;  approves  the  selection  of 
Proper  Sentences  for  the  opening  of  Morning  and  Even- 


ITS    CRITICS   AND    ITS   PROSPECTS.  141 

ing  Prayer ;  avers,  certainly  with  truth,  that  the  Office 
of  the  Beatitudes  might  be  improved  ;  welcomes  "  the 
very  full  repertory  of  special  prayers  "  ;  thinks  that  the 
Short  Office  of  Prayer  for  Sundry  Occasions  "certainly 
supplies  a  want "  ;  rejoices  in  the  recognition  of  the 
Feast  of  the  Transfiguration  ;  and  closes  what  is  by  far 
the  most  considerable,  and,  both  as  respects  praise  and 
blame,  the  most  valuable  of  all  the  reviews  that  have 
been  made  of  The  Book  Annexed  whether  at  home 
or  abroad,  with  these  words  : 

On  the  whole,  we  very  heartily  congratulate  our  Transatlantic 
brothers  on  the  labors  of  their  Joint  Committee.  We  hope  their 
recommendations  may  be  adopted,  and  more  in  the  same  direc- 
tion ;  and  that  the  two  or  three  serious  blemishes  which  we  have 
felt  constrained  to  point  out  and  to  lament  may  be  removed  from 
the  book  in  the  form  finally  adopted. 

And  further,  we  very  earnestly  trust  that  this  work,  which  has 
been  very  evidently  so  carefully  and  conscientiously  done,  may 
speedily,  by  way  of  example  and  precedent,  bear  fruit  in  a  like 
process  of  enrichment  among  ourselves. 

Commending  these  last  words  to  the  consideration  of 
those  who  take  alarm  at  the  suggestion  of  touching  the 
Prayer  Book  lest  we  may  hurt  the  susceptibilities  of 
our  "kin  beyond  sea,"  and  unduly  anticipate  that 
"joint  action  of  both  Churches,"  which,  at  least  until 
disestablishment  comes,  must  always  remain  a  sheer  im- 
possibility, we  pass  to  a  consideration  of  the  six  articles 
contributed  to  the  Church  Times  in  July  and  August 
last,  under  the  title,  The  Revised  American  Prayer  Book. 
Here  we  come  upon  a  writer  who,  if  not  always  edify- 
ing, has  the  undoubted  merit  of  being  never  dull.  In 
fact,  so  deliciously  are  logical  inconsequence  and  ac- 
cidental humor  mingled  throughout  his  fifteen  columns 


142  THE    BOOK    ANNEXED  I 

of  discursive  criticism  that  a  suspicion  arises  as  to  the 
writer's  nationality.  It  is  doubtful  whether  anyone 
born  on  the  English  side  of  the  Irish  Sea  could  possibly 
have  suggested  the  establishment  of  a  Saint's  Day  in 
honor  of  the  late  respected  Warden  of  Racine  College, 
or  seriously  have  proposed  that  Messrs.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  Russell  Lowell,  Henry  James,  and  W.  D. 
Howells  be  appointed  a  jury  of  "  literary  arbitrament  " 
to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  liturgical  language  of  The 
Book  Annexed  ;  and  this  out  of  respect  to  our  proper 
national  pride.  Doubtless  it  would  add  perceptibly  to 
the  amused  sense  of  the  unfitness  of  things  with  which 
these  eminent  liberals  must  have  seen  themselves  thus 
named,  if  permission  could  be  given  to  the  jury,  when 
empanelled,  to  "  co-opt "  into  its  number  Mr.  Samuel 
Clemens  and  Mr.  Dudley  Warner.* 

The  general  tenor  of  the  writer  in  The  Church  Times 
may  fairly  be  inferred  from  -the  following  extract  from 
the  first  article  of  the  series  : 

The  judgment  that  must  be  pronounced  on  the  work  as  a 
whole  is  precisely  that  which  has  been  passed  on  the  Revised 

*  This  proposal  of  arbitration  has  occasioned  so  much  innocent 
mirth  that,  in  justice  to  the  maker  of  it,  attention  should  be  called 
to  the  ambiguity  of  the  language  in  which  it  is  couched.  The 
wording  of  the  passage  is  vague.  It  is  just  possible  that  by  "  the 
question  ".which  he  would  be  content  to  submit  to  the  judgment 
of  the  four  specified  men  of  letters,  he  means,  not,  as  he  has  been 
understood  to  mean,  the  whole  subject-matter  of  The  Book  An- 
nexed, but  only  the  abstract  question  whether  verbal  variations 
from  the  English  original  of  the  Common  Prayer  be  or  be  not,  on 
grounds  of  purity  of  style,  desirable.  Even  if  this  be  all  that  he 
means  there  is  perhaps  still  room  for  a  smile,  but,  at  all  events, 
he  ought  to  have  the  benefit  of  the  doubt. 


ITS   CRITICS   AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  143 

New  Testament,  that  there  are  doubtless  some  few  changes  for 
the  better,  so  obvious  and  so  demanded  beforehand  by  all  edu- 
cated opinion  that  to  have  neglected  them  would  at  once  have 
stamped  the  revisers  as  blockheads  and  dunces  ;  but  that  the  set- 
off in  the  way  of  petty  and  meddlesome  changes  for  the  worse, 
neglect  of  really  desirable  improvements,  bad  English,  failure  in 
the  very  matter  of  pure  scholarship  just  where  it  was  least  to  be 
expected,  and  general  departure  from  the  terms  of  the  Commis- 
sion assigned  to  them  (notably  by  their  introduction  of  confusion 
instead  of  flexibility  into  the  services,  so  that  the  congregation  can 
seldom  know  what  is  going  to  happen)  has  so  entirely  outweighed 
the  merits  of  the  work  that  it  cannot  possibly  be  adopted  by  the 
Church,  and  must  be  dismissed  as  a  dismal  fiasco,  to  be  dealt 
with  anew  in  some  more  adequate  fashion. 

This  paragraph  is  not  reproduced  for  the  purpose  of 
discrediting  the  writer  of  it  as  a  judge  of  English  prose, 
for  there  are  various  passages  in  the  course  of  the  six 
articles  that  would  more  readily  lend  themselves  to  such 
a  use.  The  object  in  quoting  it  is  simply  to  put  the 
reader  into  possession,  in  a  compact  form,  of  the  most 
angry,  even  if  not  the  most  formidable,  of  the  various 
indictments  yet  brought  against  The  Book  Annexed. 

Moreover,  the  last  words  of  the  extract  supply  a  good 
text  for  certain  didactic  remarks  that  ought  to  be  made, 
with  respect  to  what  is  possible  and  what  is  not  possible 
in  the  line  of  liturgical  revision  in  America. 

Worthless  as  the  result  of  the  Joint  Committee's 
labors  has  turned  out  to  be,  their  motive,  we  are  assured, 
was  a  good  one.  The  critic's  contention  is  not  that  the 
work  they  undertook  is  a  work  that  ought  not  to  be 
done,  but  rather  that  when  done  it  should  be  better 
done.  The  revision  as  presented  must  be  "  dismissed  as 
a  dismal  fiasco,"  but  only  dismissed  "  in  order  to  be 
dealt  with  anew  in  some  more  adequate  fashion."     But 


144  THE   BOOK    ANNEXED  ! 

on  what  ground  can  we  rest  this  sanguine  expectation  of 
better  things  to  come  ?  Whence  is  to  originate  and  how 
is  to  be  appointed  the  commission  of  "  experts  "  which 
is  to  give  us  at  last  the  "  Ideal  Liturgy  "  ? 

Cardinal  Newman  in  one  of  his  lesser  controversial 
tracts  remarks  : 

If  the  English  people  lodge  power  in  the  many,  not  in  the  few, 
what  wonder  that  its  operation  is  roundabout,  clumsy,  slow,  in- 
termittent, and  disappointing  ?  You  cannot  eat  your  cake  and 
have  it ;  you  cannot  be  at  once  a  self-governing  nation  and  have 
a  strong  government.* 

Similarly  it  may  be  said  that,  however  great  the  diffi- 
culties that  beset  liturgical  revision  by  legislative  proc- 
ess at  the  hands  of  some  five  hundred  men,  neverthe- 
less the  fact  remains  that  the  body  known  in  law  as 
The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States 
of  America  has  provided  in  its  Constitution  that  change 
in  ils  formularies  shall  be  so  effected  and  not  otherwise. 
It  may  turn  out  that  we  must  give  up  in  despair  the 
whole  movement  for  a  better  adaptation  of  our  manual 
of  worship  to  the  needs  of  our  land  and  of  our  time  ;  it 
may  be  found  that  the  obstacles  in  the  way  are  absolutely 
insuperable  ;  but  let  us  dream  no  dreams  of  seeing  this 
thing  handed  over,  "  with  power,"  to  a  "  commission  of 
experts,"  for  that  is  something  which  will  never  come  to 
pass. 

Whether  "  experts  "  in  liturgies  are  any  more  likely 
to  furnish  us  with  good  prayers  than  "  experts  "  in  pros- 
ody are  likely  to  give  us  the  best  poetry  is  a  tempting 
question,  but  one  that  must  be  left,  for  the  present,  on 
one  side.  Perhaps,  if  the  inquiry  were  to  be  pushed,  we 
*  Discussions  and  Arguments,  p.  341. 


ITS    CRITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  145 

might  find  ourselves  shut  up  to  the  curious  conclusion 
that  the  framers  of  the  very  earliest  liturgies,  the  authors 
of  the  old  sacramentaries,  were  either  verbally  inspired 
or  else  were  lacking  in  the  qualifications  which  alone 
could  fit  them  to  do  worthily  the  work  they  worthily 
did,  for  clearly  "  experts  "  they  were  not. 

But  the  question  that  immediately  concerns  us  is  one 
of  simple  fact.  Assuming  the  present  laborious  effort 
at  betterment  to  have  been  proved  a  "fiasco,"  how  is  the 
General  Convention  to  set  in  motion  any  more  promising 
enginery  of  revision  ?  "  Summon  in,"  say  our  English 
advisers,  "competent  scholars,  and  give  them  carte 
blanche  to  do  what  they  will."  But  the  Convention, 
which  is  by  law  the  final  arbiter,  has  no  power  to  invite 
to  a  share  in  its  councils  men  who  have  no  constitutional 
right  to  a  seat  upon  its  floor.  How  thankfully  should 
we  welcome  as  participants  in  our  debates  and  as  allies 
in  our  legislation  the  eminent  liturgical  scholars  who 
give  lustre  to  the  clergy  list  of  the  Church  of  England  ; 
but  we  are  as  powerless  to  make  them  members  of  the 
General  Convention  as  we  should  be  to  force  them  into 
the  House  of  Commons.  The  same  holds  true  at  home. 
If  the  several  dioceses  fail  to  discover  their  own  "  in- 
glorious Miltons,"  and  will  not  send  them  up  to  General 
Convention,  General  Convention  may,  and  doubtless 
does,  lament  the  blindness  of  the  constituencies,  but  it 
cannot  correct  their  blunder.  The  dioceses  in  which 
the  "experts"  canonically  reside  had  had  full  warning 
that  important  liturgical  interests  were  to  be  discussed 
and  acted  upon  in  the  General  Convention  of  1883  ;  why 
were  the  "  experts  "  left  at  home  ?  And  if  they  were 
not  returned  in  1883,  is  there  sufficient  reason  to  believe 


146  THE    BOOK   ANNEXED  I 

that  they  will  ever  be  returned  in  any  coming  year  of 
grace  ?  It  must  be  either  that  the  American  Church  is 
bereft  of  "  experts,"  or  else  that  the  constituencies,  in- 
fluenced possibly  by  the  hard  sense  of  the  laity,  have 
learned  hopelessly  to  confound  the  "expert"  with  the 
doctrinaire. 

Of  "  expert  testimony,"  in  the  shape  of  the  liturgical 
material  gathered,  mainly  by  English  writers,  during 
the  last  fifty  years,  the  Joint  Committee  had  no  lack. 
That  this  material  was  carefully  sifted  and  conscien- 
tiously used,  The  Book  Annexed  will  itself  one  day 
be  acknowledged  to  be  the  sufficient  evidence. 

There  is  still  another  point  that  must  be  taken  into  ac- 
count in  this  connection,  to  wit,  the  attitude  which  the 
Episcopate  has  a  right  to  take  with  respect  to  any  pro- 
posed work  of  liturgical  revision.  Bishops  have  probably 
become  inured  to  the  hard  measure  habitually  dealt  out  to 
them  in  the  columns  of  the  Church  Times,  and  are  un- 
likely to  allow  charges  of  ignorance  and  incompetency  so 
far  to  disturb  their  composure  as  to  make  them  afraid  to 
prosecute  a  work  which,  from  time  immemorial,  has  been 
held  to  lie  peculiarly  within  their  province.  It  may  be 
affirmed,  with  some  confidence,  that  no  revision  of  the 
American  Offices  will  ever  be  ratified,  in  the  conduct  of 
which  the  Bishops  of  the  Church  have  not  been  allowed 
the  leadership  which  belongs  to  them  of  right.  Then 
it  is  for  the  General  Convention  carefully  to  consider 
whether  any  House  of  Bishops  destined  to  be  convened 
in  our  time  is  likely  to  have  on  its  roll  the  names  of 
any  prelates  more  competent,  whether  on  the  score  of 
learning  or  of  practical  experience,  to  deal  with  a  work 
of   liturgical    revision    than    were    the    seven   prelates 


ITS   CRITICS   AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  14V 

elected  by  the  free  voice  of  their  brethren  to  repre- 
sent the  Episcopal  Order  on  the  Joint  Committee  of 
Twenty-one. 

Coming  to  details  the  reviewer  of  the  Church  Times 
regrets,  first  of  all,  the  failure  of  the  Convention  to 
change  the  name  of  the  Church.  He  goes  on  to  express 
a  disapproval,  more  or  less  qualified,  of  the  discretionary 
power  given  to  bishops  to  set  forth  forms  of  prayer  for 
special  occasions,  and  of  the  continued  permission  to 
use  Selections  of  Psalms  instead  of  the  psalms  for  the 
day.  It  is  not  quite  clear  whether  he  approves  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  Table  of  Proper  Psalms  or  not,  though  he 
thinks  it  "  abstractedly  desirable "  that  provision  be 
made  in  this  connection  for  "  Corpus  Christi  and  All 
Souls." 

He  condemns  the  latitude  allowed  in  the  choice  of  les- 
sons under  the  rules  of  the  new  lectionary,  fearing  that 
a  clergyman  who  happens  to  dislike  any  given  chapter 
because  of  its  contents  may  be  tempted  habitually  to 
suppress  it  by  substituting  another,  but  in  the  very 
next  paragraph  he  gravely  questions  the  expediency  of 
limiting  congregations  to  such  hymns  as  have  been 
"  duly  set  forth  and  allowed  by  authority."  Yet  most 
observers,  at  least  on  this  side  of  the  water,  are  of  opin- 
ion that  liberty  of  choice  within  the  limits  of  the  Bible 
is  a  far  safer  freedom,  so  far  as  the  breeding  of  heresy 
goes,  than  liberty  of  choice  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
Hymnal  has  proved  itself  to  be.  The  reviewer  is 
pleased  with  the  addition  of  the  Feast  of  the  Transfigu- 
ration to  the  Calendar,  but  "  desiderates  more,"  and 
would  gladly  welcome  the  introduction  into  the  Prayer 
Book  of  commemorations  of  eminent  saints,  from  Igna- 


148  THE   BOOK   ANNEXED  J 

tius  down,*  but  of  this,  mention  has  already  been  made, 
and  it  is  unnecessary  to  revert  to  it. 

There  follows  next  a  protest  against  the  selection  of 
proper  Sentences  prefixed  to  Morning  and  Evening 
Prayer. 

The  revisers  seem  to  have  a  glimmering  of  what  was  the  right 
tiling  to  do,  .  .  .  but  they  should  have  swept  away  the  undevo- 
tional  and  unliturgical  plan  of  beginning  with  certain  detached 
texts,  which  has  no  fitness  whatever,  and  has  never  even  seemed 
to  answer  any  useful  end. 

This  is  stronger  language  than  most  of  us  are  likely 
to  approve.  A  Church  that  directly  takes  issue  with 
Rome,  as  ours  does,  with  respect  to  the  true  source  of 
authority  in  religion  has  an  excellent  reason  for  letting 
the  voice  of  Holy  Scripture  sound  the  key-note  of  her 
daily  worship,  whether  there  be  ancient  precedent  for 
such  a  use  or  not.  At  the  same  time,  the  reviewer's 
averment  that  "  the  only  proper  opening  is  the  Invoca- 
tion of  the  Holy  Trinity  "  is  entitled  to  attention  ;  and 
it  is  worth  considering  whether  the  latter  portion  of  the 
nineteenth  verse  of  the  twenty-eighth  chapter  of  St.  Mat- 
thew's Gospel  might  not  be  advantageously  added  to  the 
list  of  opening  Sentences,  for  optional  use. 

In  speaking  of  the  new  alternate  to  the  Declaration  of 
Absolution,  the  reviewer  suggests  most  happily  that  it 
would  be  well  to  revive  the  form  of  mutual  confession 
of  priest  and  people  found  in  the  old  service-books.f 

*  "  The  list  might  be  brought  down  as  late  as  the  authorities 
pleased  to  bring  it,  even  to  include,  if  they  chose,  such  names 
as  John  Keble,  James  De  Koven,  and  Ferdinand  Ewer."—  The 
Church  Times  for  August  14,  1885. 

f  This  form  of  absolution  suggested  as  an  alternate  rn  The 
Book  Annexed  is  taken  from  the  source  mentioned . 


ITS   CRITICS   AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  149 

This  proposal  would  probably  not  be  entertained  in  con- 
nection with  the  regular  Orders  for  Morning  and  Evening 
Prayer,  but  room  for  such  a  feature  might  perhaps  be 
found  in  some  optional  office. 

After  a  grudging  commendation  of  the  steps  taken  in 
The  Booh  Annexed  to  restore  the  Gospel  Canticles, 
the  reviewer  next  puts  in  a  strong  plea  for  a  larger 
allowance  of  versicles  and  responses  after  the  Creed, 
contending  that  this  is  "  just  one  of  the  places  where 
enrichment,  much  beyond  that  of  replacing  the  English 
versicles  and  responses  now  missing,  is  feasible  and 
easy,"  to  which  the  answer  is  that  we,  who  love  these 
missing  versicles,  shall  think  ourselves  fortunate  if  we 
succeed  in  regaining  only  so  much  as  we  have  lost. 
Even  this  will  be  accomplished  with  difficulty.  It  is 
most  interesting,  however,  to  notice  that  this  stout 
defender  of  all  that  is  English  acknowledges  the  coup- 
ling together  of  the  versicle,  "  Give  peace  in  our  time,  O 
Lord,"  and  the  response,  "  Because  there  is  none  other 
that  fighteth  for  us,  but  only  thou,  O  God,"  to  be  "  a 
very  irffelicitous  non-sequiturP  For  correcting  this  pal- 
pable incongruity,  the  authors  of  The  Book  Annexed 
have  been  sharply  criticised  here  at  home.  What  were 
they  that  they  should  have  presumed  to  disturb  ancient 
Anglican  precedent  in  such  a  point  ?  If  we  could  not 
understand  why  the  God  of  battles,  as  the  God  of 
battles,  should  be  implored  to  "give  peace  in  our  time," 
so  much  the  worse  for  our  intelligence.  But  here  comes 
the  most  acrid  of  all  our  critics,  and  shows  how  the  col- 
location of  sentences  in  the  English  Book  has,  from  the 
beginning,  been  due  to  a  palpable  blunder  in  condensing 
an  office  of  the  Sarum  Breviaiy.     Of  the  American  sub- 


150  THE   BOOK   ANNEXED  : 

stitute  for  this  "  unhappy  response  "  the  best  he  can  say, 
however,  is  that  it  is  "well  intentioned." 

Of  the  "  Office  of  the  Beatitudes  "  the  reviewer  de- 
clares that  it  "  needs  thorough  recasting  before  it  can 
stand,"  and  in  this  we  agree  with  him,  as  will  hereafter 
appear,  though  wholly  unable  to  concur  in  his  sweeping 
condemnation,  in  this  connection,  of  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  of  Canon  Bright's  liturgical  compositions,  the 
Collect  beginning,  "O  God,  by  whom  the  meek  are 
guided  in  judgment  and  light  riseth  up  in  darkness  for 
the  godly."  Of  this  exquisite  piece  of  idiomatic  English, 
the  reviewer  allows  himself  to  speak  as  being  "  a  very 
poor  composition,  defective  in  rhythm." 

The  criticism  of  the  eucharistic  portions  of  The  Book 
Annexed  is  mainly  in  the  line  of  complaint  that  more 
has  not  been  added  in  the  way  of  new  collects  and 
proper  prefaces,  but  upon  this  point  it  is  unnecessary  to 
dwell,  the  reasons  having  been  already  given  why  the 
Joint  Committee  and  the  Convention  left  the  liturgy 
proper  almost  untouched.  Neither  is  there  anything 
that  specially  calls  for  notice  or  serious  reply  in  what  is 
said  about  the  Occasional  Offices. 

The  Office  for  the  Burial  of  Children  is  acknowledged 
to  be  a  needed  addition,  but  as  it  stands  "  is  pitched  in 
an  entirely  wrong  key.  The  cognate  offices  in  the 
Rituale  Romanun  and  the  Priest's  Prayer  Book 
ought  to  have  shown  the  Committee,  were  it  not  for 
their  peculiar  unteachableness,  a  better  way."  To  one 
who  can  read  between  the  lines,  this  arraignment  of 
the  Americans  for  their  lack  of  docility  to  the  teachings 
of  the  Priest's  Prayer  Book  is  not  devoid  of  drollery. 

It  will  happily  illustrate  the  peculiar  difficulties  that 


ITS    CRITICS   AXD    ITS    PROSPECTS.  151 

beset  liturgical  revision  to  close  this  resume*  of  the  cen- 
sures of  The  Church  Times  by  printing,  side  by  side, 
the  reviewer's  estimate  of  the  changes  proposed  in  the 
Confirmation  Office  and  the  independent  judgment  of  a 
learned  evangelical  divine  of  our  own  Church  upon  the 
same  point. 

The  Confirmation  Service,  as  one  of  the  very  poorest  in  the 
Anglican  rites,  stood  particularly  in  need  of  amendment  and  en- 
richment, especially  by  the  removal  of  the  ambiguous  word  "  con- 
firm "  applied  to  the  acts  of  the  candidates,  whereby  the  errone- 
ous opinion  that  they  came  merely  to  confirm  and  ratify  their 
baptismal  promises,  and  not  to  be  confirmed  and  strengthened  in 
virtue  of  something  bestowed  upon  them,  has  gained  currency. 

Thus  far  the  English  Ritualist.  Here  follows  the 
American  Evangelical : 

I  still  hope  you  will  see  your  way  clear  to  modify  the  present 
draft  of  the  proposed  Confirmation  Office,  as  it  gives  a  much 
higher  Sacramentarian  idea  of  it  than  the  present,  a  concession 
which  will  greatly  please  the  Sacerdotalists,  to  which  they  are  by 
no  means  entitled. 

The  critic  of  The  Guardian  is  a  writer  of  different 
make,  and  entitled  every  way  to  the  most  respectful 
attention.  His  fault-finding,  which  is  invariably  courte- 
ous, is  mainly  confined  to  the  deficiencies  of  The  Book 
Annexed. 

He  would  have  had  more  done  rather  than  less  ;  but 
at  the  same  time  clearly  points  out  that  under  the  re- 
strictions which  controlled  the  Committee  more  could 
not  fairly  have  been  expected.  He  regrets  that  in  re- 
storing the  lost  portions  of  Venite  and  Benedictus  the 
Convention  did  not  make  the  use  of  the  complete  form 
in  every  case  obligatory  ;  and  of  the  eight  concluding 


152  THE   BOOK   ANNEXED  I 

verses  of  the  latter  canticle,  which  under  the  rubric 
of  The  Book  Annexed  are  only  obligatory  during 
Advent,  he  says,  "  Imagine  their  omission  on  Christmas 
Day!" 

To  this  criticism  there  are  several  answers,  any  one  of 
which  may  be  held  to  be  sufficient.  In  the  first  place, 
it  should  be  remembered  that  into  the  Committee's 
plan  of  enrichment  there  entered  the  element  of  differ- 
entiation. The  closing  portion  of  the  Venite  has  a 
special  appropriateness  to  Lent ;  the  closing  portion  of 
the  Benedictus  a  special  appropriateness  to  Advent. 
Moreover,  if  any  congregations  desire  the  whole  of  these 
two  canticles  throughout  the  year,  there  is  nothing  in 
the  rubrics  of  The  Book  Annexed  to  forbid  such  an 
enjoyment  of  them.  They  may  be  sung  in  full  always  ; 
but  only  in  Lent  in  the  one  case,  and  in  Advent  in  the 
other,  mast  they  be  so  sung.  The  revision  Committee 
was  informed,  on  what  was  considered  the  highest  au- 
thority, that  in  the  Church  of  England  the  Benedictus, 
on  account  of  its  length,  had  been  very  generally  dis- 
used. But,  however  this  may  be,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  effort  after  restoration  would  have 
failed  completely  in  the  late  Convention  had  the  use  of 
these  two  canticles  in  full  been  insisted  upon  by  the 
promoters  of  revision. 

There  is  less  of  verbal  criticism  in  The  Guardians 
review  than  could  have  been  wished,  for  any  sugges- 
tions with  respect  to  inaccuracies  of  style  or  rhythmical 
shortcomings  would  have  been  most  welcome  from  the 
pen  of  so  competent  a  censor.  Attention  is  called  to 
the  unmusical  flow  of  language  in  the  alternate  Confes- 
sion provided  for  the  Evening  Office  ;   the  figurative 


ITS   CRITICS   AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  153 

features  of  the  proposed  Collect  for  Maundy-Thursday 
are  characterized  as  infelicitous  ;  and  the  Collect  pro- 
vided for  the  Feast  of  the  Transfiguration  is  declared 
to  be  inferior  to  the  corresponding  one  in  the  Sarum 
Breviary. 

Of  this  sort  of  criticism,  at  the  hands  of  men  who  know 
their  craft,  The  Book  Annexed  cannot  have  too  much. 
In  fact,  of  such  immeasurable  importance  is  good  Eng- 
lish in  this  connection,  that  it  would  be  no  hardship 
were  every  separate  clause  of  whatever  formulary  it  may 
be  proposed  to  engraft  upon  the  Prayer  Book  to  be 
subjected  to  the  most  searching  tests. 

Let  an  epoch  be  agreed  upon,  if  necessary,  that  shall 
serve  as  the  criterion  of  admissibility  for  words  and 
phrases.  Let  it  be  decided,  for  instance,  that  no  word 
that  cannot  prove  an  Elizabethan  parentage,  or,  if  this 
be  too  severe  a  standard,  then  no  word  of  post-Caroline 
origin,  shall  be  admitted  within  the  sacred  precincts. 
Probably  there  are  words  in  The  Book  Annexed  which 
such  a  canon  would  eject  ;  but  let  us  have  them  pointed 
out,  and  their  merits  and  demerits  discussed.  Such 
criticism  would  be  of  infinitely  more  value  to  the  real 
interests  of  revision  than  those  vague  and  general 
charges  of  "  crudeness  "  and  "  want  of  finish  "  which  it 
is  always  so  easy  to  make  and  sometimes  so  difficult  to 
illustrate. 

The  writer  in  The  Guardian  closes  an  only  too  brief 
commentary  upon  what  the  Convention  has  laid  before 
the  Church  with  the  following  words  : 

Many  of  the  proposals  now  in  question  are  excellent ;  but  others 
will  be  improved  by  reconsideration  in  the  light  of  fuller  ritual 
study,  such  as  will  be  seen  to  produce  a  more  exact  and  cultured 


154  THE   BOOK   ANNEXED  I 

ritual  alaBrjaiq,  perhaps  we  may,  without  offence,  add,  a  more  deli- 
cate appreciation  of  rhythm.  What  The  Book  Annexed  pre- 
sents to  us  in  the  way  of  emendation  is,  on  the  whole,  good  ;  but, 
if  subjected  to  a  deliberate  recension,  it  would,  we  predict,  become 
still  better.  If  thus  improved  by  the  Convention  of  1886,  it 
might  be  finally  adopted  by  the  Convention  of  1889. 

This  conspectus  of  English  critical  opinion  would  be 
incomplete  were  no  account  to  be  made  of  the  utterances 
of  the  various  writers  and  speakers  who  dealt  with  the 
general  subject  of  liturgical  revision  at  the  recent  Church 
Congress  at  Portsmouth. 

The  Book  Annexed  could  scarcely  ask  a  more  com- 
plete justification  than  is  supplied  by  these  testimonies  of 
men  who  at  least  may  be  supposed  to  be  acquainted  with 
the  needs  of  the  Church  of  England. 

The  following  catena,  made  up  from  three  of  the  four 
papers  *  read  upon  the  Prayer  Book,  gives  a  fair  notion 
of  the  general  tone  of  the  discussion.  It  will  be  worth 
anyone's  while  to  collate  it  with  the  thirty  Resolutions 
that  make  up  the  "  Notification  to  the  Dioceses." 

Can  it  be  seriously  doubted  that  there  are  requirements  of  this 
age  which  are  not  satisfied  by  the  provision  for  public  worship 
made  in  the  sixteenth  century  ?  Can  any  really  suppose  that  the 
compilers  of  that  brief  manual,  the  Prayer  Book,  however  proud 
we  may  rightly  be  of  their  work,  were  so  gifted  with  inspired 
foresight  as  to  save  the  Church  of  future  ages  the  responsibilities 
of  considering  and  supplying  the  devotional  wants  of  successive 
generations? 

Who  has  not  felt  the  scantiness  of  holy  association  in  our  Sun- 
day  and  week-day  worship  ?  .   .   .   Much,   I  know,  has  been 

*  The  paper  read  by  the  Dean  of  Worcester  dealt  exclusively 
with  the  legal  aspects  of  the  question  as  it  concerns  the  Church  of 
England, 


ITS   CRITICS    AND    ITS   PROSPECTS.  155 

supplied  by  our  hymnology,  which  has  progressed  nobly  in  pro- 
portion as  the  meagreness  of  our  liturgical  provision  has  been 
realized.  But  beyond  hymns  we  need  actual  forms  of  service, 
which  shall  strike  the  ear  and  touch  the  heart  by  fresh  and  vivid 
adaptations  of  God's  Word  to  the  great  mysteries  of  the  Gospel 
faith.  .  .  .  After-services  on  Sunday  evenings  Jiave  of  late 
grown  common  ;  for  them  we  need  also  the  aid  of  regular  and 
elastic  forms. 

Most  deplorably  have  we  felt  the  need  of  intercessory  services 
for  Home  and  Foreign  Missions  ;  and,  though  there  are  beautiful 
metrical  litanies  which  bear  directly  on  these  and  other  objects, 
yet  these  are  not  sufficient,  and  of  course  are  limited  to  times 
when  a  good  and  strong  choir  can  be  secured  ;  .  .  .  and  further 
we  want  very  simple  forms  of  prayer  to  accompany  addresses 
given  in  homes  and  mission  rooms.* 

I  declare  it  as  my  conviction,  after  many  years  of  (I  hope)  a 
not  indolent  ministry,  and  of  many  opportunities  of  observation 
and  experiment,  that  the  Church  stands  in  pressing  and  imme- 
diate need  of  a  few  rearrangements  and  adaptations  of  some  of 
her  Offices ;  also  of  an  enormous  number  of  supplementary 
Offices  or  services — some  for  frequent  use,  others  for  occasional 
purposes  within  the  consecrated  buildings ;  and  that  besides 
these  there  is  need  of  a  supply  of  special  Offices  for  the  use  of  a 
recognized  lay  agency  outside  of  the  church  edifices. 

Why  limit  our  introductory  sentences  to  seven  deprecatory 
texts  ?  .  .  .  Why  can  we  not  introduce  the  anthem  used  on 
Easter-day,  instead  of  the  Venite,  throughout  the  Octave  ;  or  at 
least  on  Easter  Monday  and  Tuesday  ?  Would  not  spiritual  life 
be  deepened  and  intensified,  and,  best  of  all,  be  strengthened,  by 
the  use  in  the  same  manner  of  a  suitable  anthem  instead  of  the 
Venite  on  Advent  Sundays,  on  Christmas-day,  at  Epiphany,  on 
Ash- Wednesday,  on  Good  Friday,  during  Rogation  days,  at 
Ascension-tide,  and  on  harvest  festivals  and  the  special  annual 
Church  festival  of  the  year  ? 

*  The  Rev.  Edgar  Morris  Dumbleton  (Rector  of  St.  James's, 
Exeter). 


156  THE    BOOK    ANNEXED  I 

I  submit  that  an  enrichment  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  is 
also  required.  For  although,  as  already  suggested,  this  may  be 
provided  to  some  extent  by  a  Collect  for  occasional  use  before  the 
final  prayer  of  Morning  Prayer  or  Evensong,  the  needs  of  the 
Church  will  not  be  fully  supplied  without  some  complete  addi- 
tional offices.  Certainly  an  additional  service  for  Sunday  after- 
noon and  evening.  .  .  The  times  are  very  solemn,  and  we  must 
wait  no  longer.  .  .  We  have  talked  for  nearly  twenty-five 
years — not  vainly,  I  believe— but  let  us  "go  and  do"  not  a  little  in 
the  next  five  years.  .  .  Prove  yourself  to  be  of  the  Church  of 
God  by  doing  all  the  work  of  the  Church,  and  in  the  proper  way. 
Proclaim  before  our  God  by  your  actions  and  your  activities,  and 
by  providing  all  that  is  needed,  not  only  for  Churchmen,  but  for 
earnest  Christians  who  are  not  Churchmen,  and  for  the  poor, 
weary  sinners  who  are  living  as  if  there  were  neither  Church  nor 
Saviour,  such  services  for  the  one,  and  such  means  for  drawing 
the  others  to  Christ,  that  they  all  may  become  one  in  him.  And 
for  all  this  you  must  have  (as  I  think) : 

1.  Possibly  a  small  rearrangement  of  existing  services. 

2.  Variety  and  additions  in  some  of  these  services. 

3.  Enrichment  by  many  services  supplementary. 

4.  Services  for  use  by  laymen. 

I  wish  to  alarm  none,  but  I  wish  we  were  all  astir,  for  there  is 
no  time  to  wait.* 

I  should  like  to  suggest,  if  it  seems  desirable,  as  it  does  to  me, 
to  make  any  further  variation  from  the  original  arrangement  of 
Morning  Prayer,  that  on  such  days  as  Easter-day,  Whitsunday, 
and  Ascension-day  we  should  begin  in  a  little  different  fashion 
than  we  do  now. 

Is  it  always  needful  to  begin  on  such  great  days  of  rejoicing 
for  Christians  with  the  same  sentences  and  the  same  Exhortation 
and  Confession,  and  have  to  wait,  so  to  speak,  to  give  vent  to  our 
feelings  till  we  reach  the  special  psalms  for  the  day  ?  Might  we 
not  on  such  days  accept  the  glorious  facts,  and  begin  with  some 

♦The  Rev.  George  Venables  (Hon.  Canon  of  Norwich  and 
Vicar  of  Great  Yarmouth). 


ITS    CRITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  157 

special  and  appropriate  psalm  or  anthem  ?  .  .  .  Thus  we  should 
at  once  get  the  great  doctrine  of  the  day,  and  be  let  to  rejoice  in 
it  at  the  very  outset,  and  then  go  on  to  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the 
rest  as  we  have  it  now.  Confession  of  sin  and  absolution  are  not 
left  out  in  the  services  of  the  day,  as,  of  course,  they  occur  in  the 
Holy  Communion  ;  but  leaving  them  out  in  the  ordinary  services, 
and  beginning  in  the  way  suggested,  would  at  one  and  the  same 
time  mark  the  day  more  clearly,  and  give  opportunity  for  Christian 
gladness  to  show  itself.  .  .  Only  one  other  alteration  would,  I 
think,  be  needed,  namely,  that  a  good  selection  of  psalms  be 
made,  and  used,  as  in  the  American  Church,  at  the  discretion  of 
the  minister.  I  think  all  must  feel  that  for  one  reason  or  another 
all  the  psalms  are  not  adapted  for  the  ordinary  worship  of  a 
mixed  congregation ;  and  this  plan  would  ease  the  minds  of  many 
clergy  and  laity.  Also  copying  the  American  Church,  it  would 
be  well  to  omit  the  Litany  on  Christmas-day,  Easter-day,  and 
Whitsunday.* 

In  the  light  of  this  summary  of  Anglican  desiderata, 
compiled  by  wholly  friendly  hands,  it  is  plain  that  what- 
ever we  may  do  in  this  country  in  the  line  of  liturgical 
revision,  always  supposing  it  to  be  gravely  and  carefully 
done,  instead  of  harming,  ought  marvellously  to  help 
the  real  interests  of  the  Church  of  England.  Certain 
principles  of  polity  adopted  in  our  own  Church  a  century 
ago,  and  notably  among  them  those  affecting  the  legis- 
lative rights  of  the  laity  in  matters  ecclesiastical,  are 
beginning  to  find  tardy  recognition  in  the  England  of 
the  present.  Possibly  a  hundred  years  hence,  or  sooner, 
a  like  change  of  mind  may  bring  English  Churchmen  to 
the  approval  of  liturgical  methods  which,  even  if  not 
wholly  consonant  to  the  temper  of  the  Act  of  Uniform- 
ity, have  nevertheless  been  found  useful  and  effective  in 
the  work  of  bringing  the  truth  and  the  power  of  God 

U*  The  Rev.  Arthur  James  Robinson  (Rector  of  Wbitechapel). 


158  THE    BOOK   ANNEXED  : 

to  bear  upon  the  common  life  of  a  great  nation.  The 
Church  of  England  is  to-day  moving  on  toward  changes 
and  chances  of  which  she  sees  enough  already  to  alarm 
and  not  yet  enough  to  reassure  her.  The  dimness  of 
uncertainty  covers  what  may  yet  turn  out  to  be  the 
Mount  of  her  Transfiguration,  and  she  fears  as  she 
enters  into  the  cloud.  How  shall  we  best  and  most 
wisely  show  our  sympathy  ?  By  passing  resolutions  of 
condolence?  By  childish  commiseration,  the  utterance 
of  feigned  lips,  upon  the  approaching  sorrows  of  dis- 
establishment ?  Not  thus  at  all,  but  rather  by  a  cour- 
ageous and  well-considered  pioneering  work,  which  shall 
have  it  for  its  purpose  to  feel  the  ground  and  blaze  the 
path  which  presently  she  and  we  may  find  ourselves 
treading  in  company.  Tied  as  she  is,  for  her  an  under- 
taking of  this  sort  is  impossible.  We  can  show  her  no 
greater  kindness  than  by  entering  upon  it  of  our  own 
motion  and  alone. 

(b)  American. 

Criticism  at  home  has  been  abundant ;  much  of  it 
intelligent  and  helpful,  and  by  no  means  so  much  of  it 
as  might  have  been  expected  captious.  Of  what  may 
be  called  official  reviews  there  have  been  three,  one  from 
the  Diocese  of  Central  New  York,  one  from  the  Diocese 
of  Wisconsin,  and  one  from  the  Diocese  of  Easton. 
The  subject  has  also  been  dealt  with  in  carefully  pre- 
pared essays  published  from  time  to  time  in  The  Church 
Review  and  The  Church  Eclectic^  while  in  the  case  of 
the  weekly  journals  the  treatment  of  the  topic  has  been 
so  frequent  and  so  full  that  a  mere  catalogue  of  the 
editorial  articles  and   contributed    communications  in 


ITS   CRITICS   AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  150 

Which,  during  the  two  years  last  past,  liturgical  revision 
has  been  discussed  would  overtax  the  limits  of  the 
present  paper. 

The  only  practicable  means  of  dealing  with  this  mass 
of  criticism  is  to  adopt  the  inductive  method,  and  to 
seek  to  draw  out  from  the  utterances  of  these  many 
voices  the  four  or  five  distinct  concepts  that  severally 
lie  behind  them. 

In  limine^  however,  let  this  be  said,  that  the  broadest 
generalization  of  all  is  one  to  which  the  very  discordance 
of  the  critics  bears  the  best  possible  witness.  Of  a 
scheme  of  re  vision  against  which  is  pressed,  in  Virginia,* 
the  charge  of  Mariolatry ;  in  Ohio,f  the  charge  of 
Latitudinarianism  ;  and  in  Wisconsin^  the  charge  of 
Puritanic  pravity,  this  much  may  at  least  be  said,  that 
it  possesses  the  note  of  fairness.  From  henceforth 
suggestions  of  partisan  bias  are  clearly  out  of  order. 

The  Anglo-Catholic  censures  of  The  Booh  Annexed 
are  substantially  summed  up  in  the  assertion  that  due 
regard  is  not  had,  in  the  changes  proposed,  to  the 
structural  principles  of  liturgical  science.  In  the  exceed- 
ingly well  written,  if  somewhat  one-sided  document, 
already  referred  to  as  the  Wisconsin  Report,  this  is, 
throughout,  the  burden  of  the  complaint.  The  accom- 
plished author  of  the  Report,  than  whom  no  one  of  the 
critics  at  home  or  abroad  has  shown  a  keener  or  a  better 

*See  letter  of  "J.  L.  W."  in  The  Southern  Churchman  for 
August  6, 1885. 

f  See  letter  of  "  Ritualist "  in  The  Standard  of  the  Cross  for  July 
2, 1885. 

%  See  the  "  Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  Council  of  the  Diocese 
of  Wisconsin," passim. 


160  THE    BOOK   ANNEXED  : 

cultivated  liturgical  instinct,  is  afraid  that  a  free  use  of 
all  the  liberties  permitted  by  the  new  rubrics  of  the  daily- 
offices  would  so  revolutionize  Morning  and  Evening 
Prayer  as  practically  to  obliterate  the  line  of  their  descent 
from  the  old  monastic  forms.  If  there  were  valid  ground 
for  such  an  expectation  the  alarm  might  be  justifiable  ; 
but  is  there  ?  The  practical  effect  of  the  rubrics  that 
make  for  abbreviation  will  be  to  give  us  back,  on  week- 
days almost  exactly,  and  with  measurable  precision  on 
Sundays  also,  the  Matins  and  Evensong  of  the  First 
Book  of  Edward  VI.  Surely  this  is  not  the  destruction 
of  continuity  with  the  pre-Reformation  Church. 

In  his  dislike  of  the  provision  for  grafting  the  Beati- 
tudes upon  the  Evening  Prayer,  the  author  of  the 
Wisconsin  Report  will  have  many  sympathizers,  the 
present  writer  among  them  ;  but  in  his  fear  that  in  the 
introduction  of  the  Proem  to  the  Song  of  the  Three 
Children,  as  a  possible  respond  to  the  First  Lesson,* 
there  lurks  a  covert  design  to  dethrone  the  Te  Deutn, 
he  is  likely  to  find  few  to  agree  with  him. 

But  after  all,  may  not  this  scrupulous  regard  for  the 
precedents  set  us  in  the  old  service-books  becarried  too 

*  The  evident  intention  of  the  Joint  Committee  in  the  introduc- 
tion of  this  Canticle  was  to  make  it  possible  to  shorten  the  Morn- 
ing Prayer  on  week-days,  without  spoiling  the  structure  of  the 
office,  as  is  now  often  done,  by  leaving  out  one  of  the  Lessons. 
It  is  certainly  open  to  question  whether  a  better  alternate  might 
not  have  been  provided,  but  it  is  surprising  to  find  so  well  fur- 
nished a  scholar  as  the  Wisconsin  critic  speaking  of  the  Bene- 
dictus  es  Domine  as  a  liturgical  novelty,  "  derived  neither  from 
the  Anglican  or  the  more  ancient  service-hooks."  As  a  matter  of 
fact  the  Benedictus  es  Domine  was  sung  daily  in  the  Ambrosian 
Rite  at  Matins,  and  is  found  also  in  the  Mozarabic  Breviary. 


ITS    CRITICS   AND    ITS   PROSPECTS.  161 

far  ?  It  is  wholesome,  but  there  is  a  limit  to  the  whole- 
someness  of  it.  We  remember  who  it  was  that  made 
war  for  the  sake  of  "a  scienfific  frontier."  Some  of 
the  scientific  frontiers  in  the  region  of  liturgies  are 
as  illusory  as  his  was.  For  example,  The  Booh  An- 
nexed may  be  "  unscientific"  in  drawing  as  largely  as  it 
does  on  the  language  of  the  Apocalypse  for  versicles 
and  responses.  There  has  certainly  been  a  departure 
from  Anglican  precedent  in  this  regard.  And  yet  it 
would  scarcely  seem  that  we  could  go  far  astray  in  bor- 
rowing from  the  liturgy  of  heaven,  whether  there  be 
earthly  precedent  or  not. 

Cranmer  and  his  associates  made  a  far  bolder  break 
with  the  old  office-books  than  The  Book  Annexed 
makes  with  the  Standard  Common  Prayer.  The  state- 
ment of  the  Wisconsin  Report,  that  "  The  Reformers  of 
the  English  Church  did  not  venture  to  write  new 
Offices  of  Prayer,"  must  be  taken  \  with  qualifications. 
They  did  not  make  offices  absolutely  de  novo,  but  they 
did  condense  and  combine  old  offices  in  a  manner 
that  practically  made  a  new  thing  of  them.  They  took 
the  monastic  services  and  courageously  remoulded  them 
into  a  form  suitable  for  the  new  era  in  which  monas- 
teries were  to  exist  no  longer. 

Happily  they  were  so  thorough  in  their  work  that 
comparatively  little  change  is  called  for  in  adapting 
what  they  fitted  to  the  needs  of  the  sixteenth  century 
to  the  more  varied  requirements  of  the  nineteenth. 
Still,  when  they  are  quoted  as  conservatives,  and  we  are 
referred  for  evidence  of  their  dislike  of  change  to  that 
particular  paragraph  of  the  Preface  to  the  English 
Prayer  Book   entitled,   Concerning  the   Service  of  the 


162  THE    BOOK    ANNEXED  '. 

Church*  it  is  worth  our  while  to  follow  up  the  reference 
and  see  what  is  actually  there  said.  The  Wisconsin 
Committee  use  very  Soft  words  in  speaking  of  the 
mediaeval  perversions  and  corruptions  of  Divine  Service. 
"It  was  in  the  monasteries  chiefly,"  they  tell  us,  "that 
these  services  received  the  embellishments  and  wonder- 
ful variety  which  we  find  in  the  later  centuries."  But 
the  following  is  the  cruel  manner  in  which,  in  the  Eng- 
lish Preface  cited  as  authority,  the  "  embellishments  " 
and  "  wonderful  variety  "  are  characterized  : 

But  these  many  years  past,  this  godly  and  ancient  order  of 
the  ancient  fathers  hath  been  so  altered,  broken,  and  neglected, 
by  planting  in  uncertain  stories  and  legends,  with  multitudes  of 
responds,  verses,  vain  repetitions,  commemorations,  and  synodals, 
that  commonly  when  any  book  of  the  Bible  was  begun,  after  three 
or  four  chapters  were  read  out,  all  the  rest  were  unread. 

.  .  .  And  furthermore,  notwithstanding  that  the  ancient  fathers 
have  divided  the  Psalms  into  seven  portions,  whereof  every  one  was 
called  a  Nocturn,  now  of  late  time  a  few  of  them  have  been  daily 
said  and  the  rest  utterly  omitted.  .  .  So  that^  here  you  have  an 
Order  for  Prayer  and  for  the  Reading  of  the  Holy  Scripture 
much  agreeable  to  the  mind  and  purposes  of  the  old  fathers,  and  a 
great  deal  more  profitable  and  commodious  than  that  which  of 
late  was  used. 

This  is  conservatism  in  the  very  best  sense,  for  the 
object  aimed  at  is  plainly  the  conservation  of  purity, 
simplicity,  and  truth,  but  surely  it  is  not  the  conserv- 
atism of  men  with  whom  inaction  is  the  only  wisdom 
and  immobility  the  sole  beatitude. 

We  change  our  sky  completely  in  passing  from  Anglo- 
Catholic  to  Broad  Church  criticism  of  The  Book  An- 
nexed.    This  last  has, -in  the  main,  addressed  itself  to 

*  See  Wisconsin  Report,  p.  5. 


ITS    CEITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  163 

the  rubrical  features  of  the  proposed  revision.  "  You 
promised  us  '  flexibility,' "  the  accusation  runs,  "  but 
what  you  are  really  giving  us  is  simply  rigidity  under  a 
new  form.  Let  things  stay  as  they  are,  and  we  will  un- 
dertake to  find  all  the  '  flexibility '  we  care  to  have, 
without  help  from  legislation." 

This  criticism  has  at  least  the  merit  of  intelligibility, 
for  it  directly  antagonizes  what  was,  without  doubt,  one 
main  purpose  with  the  revisers,  namely,  that  of  reviving 
respect  for  the  rubrics  by  making  compliance  with  their 
terms  a  more  practicable  thing. 

Evidently  what  Broad  Churchmen,  or  at  least  a  sec- 
tion of  them,  would  prefer  is  the  prevalence  of  a  general 
consent  under  which  it  shall  be  taken  for  granted  that 
rubrics  are  not  literally  binding  on  the  minister,  but  are 
to  be  stretched  and  adapted,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
officiant,  as  the  exigencies  of  times  and  seasons  may 
suggest.  It  is  urged  that  such  a  common  understanding 
already  in  great  measure  exists  ;  and  that  to  enact  new 
rubrics  now,  or  to  remodel  old  ones,  would  look  like  an 
attempt  to  revivify  a  principle  of  compliance  which  we 
have  tacitly  agreed  to  consider  dead. 

The  answer  to  this  argument  is  not  far  to  seek.  If 
the  Church  means  to  allow  the  Common  Prayer,  which 
hitherto  has  been  regarded  as  a  liturgy,  to  lapse  into  the 
status  of  a  directory  ;  if,  in  other  words,  she  is  content 
to  see  her  manual  of  worship  altered  from  a  book  of  in- 
structions as  to  how  Divine  Service  shall  be  performed 
into  a  book  of  suggestions  as  to  how  it  may  be  rendered, 
the  change  ought  to  be  officially  and  definitely  an- 
nounced, and  not  left  to  individual  inference  or  uncer- 
tain conjecture.     We  are  rapidly  slipping  into  a  position 


164  THE    BOOK   ANNEXED  I 

scarcely  consistent  with  either  the  dignity  or  the  honor 
of  a  great  Church — that  of  seeming  to  be  what  we  are 
not.  To  give  it  out  to  the  public  that  we  are  a  law- 
respecting  communion,  and  then  to  whisper  it  about 
among  ourselves  that  our  laws  bind  only  those  who 
choose  to  be  bound  by  them,  may  serve  as  a  convenient 
device  for  tiding  over  a  present  difficulty,  but  is,  oh 
the  whole,  a  course  of  procedure  more  likely  to  harden 
than  to  relieve  tender  consciences. 

Take,  by  way  of  illustration,  the  case  of  a  city  clergy- 
man who  would  gladly  introduce  into  his  parish  the 
usage  of  daily  service,  but  who  is  convinced,  whether 
rightly  or  wrongly,  that  to  secure  even  a  fair  attendance 
of  worshippers  he  ought  to  have  the  liberty  of  so  far 
condensing  the  Morning  or  the  Evening  Office  as  to  bring 
it  within  the  limits  of  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  He  seeks 
relief  through  the  lawful  channel  of  rubrical  revision, 
and  is  only  laughed  at  for  his  pains.  In  this  busy  nine- 
teenth century  it  is  nonsense,  he  is  assured,  to  spend  a 
dozen  years  in  besieging  so  obdurate  a  fortress  as  the 
General  Convention.  The  way  to  secure  "shortened 
services  "  is  to  shorten  services.  This  is  easy  logic,  and 
applicable  in  more  directions  than  one.  Only  see  how 
smoothly  it  runs  :  If  you  want  hymns  that  are  not  in 
the  Hymnal,  print  them.  If  you  want  a  confessional- 
box,  set  it  up.  If  you  want  a  "  reserved  sacrament," 
order  the  carpenter  to  make  a  tabernacle  and  the  lock- 
smith to  provide  a  bolt.*  This  is  a  far  less  troublesome 
method  of  securing  the  ends  desired  than  the  tedious 
and  roundabout  process  of  proposing  a  change  at  one 

*  See  the  precautions  recommended  in  The  Living  Church 
Annual  for  1886,  p.  132,  art.  "  Tabernacle." 


ITS   CRITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  165 

meeting  of  the  General  Convention,  having  your  pro- 
posal knocked  about  among  some  forty  or  fifty  dioceses, 
and  brought  up  for  final  action  three  years  later. 

And  yet,  superior  as  the  former  method  may  be  to  the 
latter  in  point  of  celerity  and  directness,  the  latter  has 
certain  advantages  over  the  former  that  ought  to  be  evi- 
dent to  men  who  are  not  frightened  by  having  their 
scrupulousness  called  scrupulosity. 

Moreover,  why  should  this  whole  matter  be  discussed, 
as  so  commonly  it  is  discussed,  wholly  from  the  clerical 
side  ?  Have  the  laity  no  rights  in  the  liturgy  which 
the  clergy  are  bound  to  respect  ?  When  and  where  did 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  confer  on  its  ministers 
a  general  dispensing  power  over  the  ordinances  of  wor- 
ship which  it  withheld  from  the  body  of  the  faithful  ? 

Heretofore  it  has  been  held  that  when  a  layman  went 
to  church  he  had  a  right  to  expect  certain  things  guar- 
anteed him  by  the  Church's  law.  If  all  this  has  been 
changed,  then  formal  notice  ought  to  be  served  upon  us 
by  the  General  Convention  that  such  is  the  fact. 

THE   MOTIVE    OF   THE    EFFORT   AFTER   REVISION. 

It  is  asked,  and  with  no  little  show  of  plausibility, 
Why — in  the  face  of  such  manifold  hostility  and  such 
persistent  opposition,  why  press  the  movement  for  re- 
vision any  further  ?  Is  it  worth  while  to  divide  public 
sentiment  in  the  Church  upon  a  question  that  looks  to 
many  to  be  scarcely  more  than  a  literary  one  ?  Why 
not  drop  the  whole  thing,  and  let  it  fall  into  the  limbo, 
where  lie  already  the  Proposed  Book  and  the  Memorial 
Papers?  For  this  reason,  and  it  is  sufficient  :  There 
has  arisen  in  America  a  movement  toward  Christian 


166  ?HE   BOOK   ANNEXED  I 

unity,  the  like  of  which  has  not  been  seen  since  the 
country  was  settled.  It  is  the  confident  belief  of  many 
that  the  key  to  the  situation  lies  with  that  Church 
which  more  truly  than  any  other  may  be  said  to  repre- 
sent the  historical  Christianity  of  the  peoples  of  English 
stock.  One  of  the  elements  in  this  larger  movement  is 
the  question  of  the  form  of  worship.  The  chief  signifi- 
cance of  The  Book  Annexed  lies  in  the  claim  made  for 
it  by  its  friends,  that  more  adequately  than  the  present 
Standard  it  supplies  what  may  fairly  be  demanded  as 
their  manual  of  worship  by  a  people  circumstanced  like 
ours.  While,  in  one  sense,  more  English  than  the 
present  book  in  that  it  restores  liturgical  treasures  lost 
at  the  Revolution,  it  is  also  more  thoroughly  American, 
in  that  it  recognizes  and  allows  for  many  needs  which 
the  newly  enfranchised  colonists  of  1789  could  not  have 
been  expected  to  foresee. 

The  question  is,  Shall  we  turn  a  cold  shoulder  on  the 
movement  churchward  of  our  non- Anglican  brethren  of 
the  reformed  faith,  doing  our  best^to  chill  their  ap- 
proaches with  a  hard  Non  possumus,  or  shall  we  go  out 
to  meet  them  with  words  of  welcome  on  our  lips? 
Union  under  "  the  Latin  obedience  "  is  impossible.  For 
us,  in  the  face  of  the  decrees  of  1870,  there  can  be  "  no 
peace  with  Rome."  The  Greeks  are  a  good  way  off. 
Our  true  "  solidarity,"  if  "  solidarity  "  is  to  be  achieved 
at  all,  is  not  with  Celts,  but  with  our  own  kith  and  kin, 
the  children  of  the  Reformation.  Is  it  wise  of  us  to 
say  to  these  fellow  Christians  of  ours,  adherents  of  the 
Catholic  Faith  as  well  as  we,  "  Nay,  but  the  nearer  you 
draw  to  us  the  farther  we  mean  to  draw  away  from 
you  ;  the  more  closely  you   approximate   to   Anglican 


ITS    CRITICS   AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  167 

religion,  the  more  closely  shall  we,  for  the  sake  of 
differencing  ourselves  from  you,  approximate  to  Vatican 
religion  ?  " 

In  better  harmony  with  the  apostolic  temper,  in  truer 
continuity  with  the  early  churchmanship,  should  we  be 
found,  were  we  to  join  voices  thus  : 

VI  Come  ye,  and  let  us  walk  in  the  light  of  the  Lord. 

7?.  And  he  will  teach  us  of  his  ways,  and  we  will 
walk  in  his  paths. 


168  THE    BOOK   ANNEXED  : 


II. 

The  Book  Annexed  may  be  said  to  hold  to  the  possi- 
ble standard  Common  Prayer  of  1890  a  relation  not  un- 
like that  of  a  clay  model  to  the  statue  which  is  to  be. 
The  material  is  still  in  condition  to  be  moulded ;  the 
end  is  not  yet.  It  was  in  anticipation  of  this  state  of 
things  that  the  friends  of  revision  in  1883  were  anxious 
to  carry  through  the  preliminary  stage  of  acceptance  as 
many  of  their  propositions  as  possible.  To  revert  to 
our  parable,  the  modeller,  in  treating  the  face  of  his 
provisional  image,  must  be  careful  to  lay  on  clay  enough, 
or  he  may  find  himself  barred  at  the  last  moment  from 
giving  the  features  just  that  finishing  touch  which  is  to 
make  them  ready  for  the  marble.  All  the  skill  in  the 
world  will  not  enable  him  to  secure  for  the  face  pre- 
cisely the  expression  he  would  have  it  wear,  if  the 
materia  be  insufficient.  Looked  at  in  this  light,  the 
suggestion  made  by  the  Joint  Committee  in  the  House 
of  Deputies  at  an  early  stage  of  the  session  of  1883, 
that  the  entire  Book  Annexed,  in  precisely  the  form  in 
which  it  had  been  submitted,  should  be  passed,  and 
sent  down  to  the  dioceses  for  consideration,  instead  of 
being  the  arbitrary  and  unreasonable  demand  it  was 
reckoned  by  those  who  lifted  their  eyebrows  at  the  very 
mention  of  such  a  thing,  was  really  a  sensible  proposition 
which  the  Convention  would  have  done  well  to  heed. 

Few,  if  any,  critics  of  The  Book  Annexed  as  Modi- 
fied  have  pronounced  it  an  improvement  to  The  Book 


ITS    CRITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  169 

Annexed  as  presented.  The  Book  came  out  of  the  Con- 
vention less  admirable  than  it  went  in.  As  a  school  of 
Liturgies,  the  long  debate  at  Philadelphia  was  doubtless 
salutary  and  helpful,  but  whether  the  immediate  results,  as 
shown  in  the  emendation  of  the  Joint  Committee's  work, 
were  equally  deserving  of  praise  is  another  question. 

Nevertheless,  as  was  argued  in  the  paper  of  which 
this  one  is  the  continuation,  we  must  take  things  as  we 
find  them,  not  as  we  wish  they  were  ;  and  since  there  is 
no  other  method  of  liturgical  revision  known  to  our 
laws  than  revision  by  popular  debate,  to  revision  by 
popular  debate  we  must  reconcile  ourselves  as  best  we 
may.  Regrets  are  idle.  Let  us  be  thankful  that  the 
amicable  struggle  at  Philadelphia  had  for  its  outcome 
so  large  rather  than  so  small  a  mass  of  workable  ma- 
terial, and  instead  of  accounting  The  Book  Annexed  to 
be  what  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Joint  Committee's  Re- 
port has  lately  called  it,  "  a  melancholy  production," 
recognize  in  it  the  germ  of  something  exceedingly  to  be 
desired.  From  the  first,  there  has  never  been  any  dis- 
position on  the  part  of  sober-minded  friends  of  Revision 
to  carry  through  their  scheme  with  a  rush  ;  the  delay 
that  is  likely  to  better  things  they  will  welcome  ;  the 
only  delay  they  deprecate  is  the  delay  that  kills. 

The  changes  enumerated  in  the  "Notification  to  the 
Dioceses,"  and  illustrated  to  the  eye  in  The  Book  An- 
nexed as  Modified,  may  be  broadly  classified  under 
the  following  heads  : 

(a)  Clearly  desirable  alterations,  with  respect  to 
which  there  is  practically  unanimous  consent,  and  for 
which  there  is  immediate  demand,  e.  g.,  shortened 
offices  of  week-day  prayer. 


170  THE    BOOK    ANNEXED  .' 

(b)  Alterations  desirable  in  the  main,  but  likely  to  be 
more  cordially  acquiesced  in,  could  still  further  im- 
provement be  secured,  e.  g.,  the  new  versicles  introduced 
into  Evening  Prayer  after  the  Creed. 

(c)  Alterations  generally  accounted  undesirable  on 
any  terms,  e.  g.,  the  permissive  rubrics  with  respect  to 
the  reading  of  certain  psalms  during  Lent,  instead  of 
the  regular  responds  to  the  First  and  Second  Lessons  of 
the  Evening  Prayer. 

The  question  arises,  Is  any  course  of  action  possible 
that  will  give  us  without  delay  the  changes  which  for 
some  fifteen  years  the  whole  Church  has  been  laboring 
to  secure  ;  that  will  give  us,  with  a  reasonable  delay  of 
three  years  longer,  the  confessed  improvements  a  little 
more  improved  ;  while  at  the  same  time  we  are  kept 
from  becoming  involved  in  the  wretched  confusion  sure 
to  result  from  putting  into  circulation,  within  a  brief 
period,  two  authorized  but  diverse  books  of  Common 
Prayer  ?  This  threefold  question  it  is  proposed  to  meet 
with  a  threefold  affirmative. 

THE  STANDARD  PRAYER  BOOK  OF  1890. 

The  end  we  ought  to  have  in  view  is  the  publication, 
in  the  year  1890,  of  a  standard  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
such  as  shall  embody  the  ripe  results  of  what  will  then 
have  been  a  period  of  ten  years  of  continuous  labor  in 
the  work  of  liturgical  revision.  To  this  reckoning  of 
ten  years  should  properly  be  added  the  seventeen  3rears 
that  intervened  between  the  presentation  of  "  The 
Memorial"  in  1853  and  the  passing  of  the  "  Enrichment 
Resolutions  "  in  1880  :  so  that  really  our  Revision  would 


ITS   CRITICS   AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  171 

look  back  for  its  historical  beginnings,  not  across  a  decade 
merely,  but  over  almost  the  lifetime  of  a  generation.  No 
single  one  of  the  various  revisions  of  the  English  Book 
has  observed  anything  like  so  leisurely  a  movement. 

But  by  what  methods  of  legislative  procedure  could 
such  a  result  as  the  one  indicated  be  reached  ?  The  prec- 
edent of  the  last  century  does  not  help  us  very  much. 
The  American  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  set  forth 
on  the  sixteenth  day  of  October  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1789;  but  with  an  express  statutory  provision  that  the 
"use"  of  the  book,  as  so  set  forth,  should  not  become 
obligatory  till  the  first  day  of  October,  1790.  We  cannot 
copy  this  line  of  procedure,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
no  such  undertaking  as  that  of  1789  is  in  hand.  It  is 
not  now  proposed  to  legislate  into  existence  a  new 
Liturgy.  The  task  before  us  is  the  far  humbler  one  of 
passing  judgment  upon  certain  propositions  of  change, 
almost  every  one  of  which  admits  of  segregation,  has  an 
independent  identity  of  its  own,  and  may  be  accepted 
or  rejected  wholly  without  reference  to  what  is  likely  to 
happen  to  the  other  propositions  that  accompany  it. 

The  Book  Annexed  as  Modified  is  in  no  proper 
sense  a  Proposed  Book,  nor  can  it  without  misrep- 
resentation be  called  such  ;  it  is  simply  a  sample  publi- 
cation* illustrative  of  what  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  would  be,  were  all  the  Resolutions  of  Revision 

*  In  this  respect  The  Book  Annexed  may  be  compared  to 
The  Convocation  P)-ayer  Book  published  by  Murray  in  1880, 
for  the  purpose  of  showing  what  the  English  Book  would  be  like 
if  "amended  in  conformity  with  the  recommendations  of  the  Con- 
vocations of  Canterbury  and  York,  contained  in  reports  presented 
to  her  Majesty  the  Queen  in  the  year  1879." 


172  THE    BOOK    ANNEXED  : 

that  passed  their  first  stage  of  approval  in  1 883  carried 
into  final  effect ;  a  result  most  unlikely  to  occur. 

THE   MEANS    TO    THE    END. 

The  most  expeditious  and  every  way  satisfactory  means 
to  the  end  that  has  now  been  defined  would  be  the  ap- 
pointment, at  an  early  stage  of  the  session  in  October, 
of  a  Joint  Committee  of  Conference.  To  this  committee 
should  be  referred  : 

(a)  The  question  :  How  many  of  the  Resolutions  of 
1883,  or  of  the  "  several  recommendations  therein  con- 
tained," is  it  either  practicable  or  desirable  to  approve 
at  once  ? 

(b)  The  question  :  How  may  such  of  the  Resolu- 
tions of  1883  as  are  too  good  to  be  lost,  but  not  in  their 
present  form  good  enough  to  satisfy  the  Church,  be  so 
remoulded  as  to  make  their  adoption  probable  in  1889  ? 

(c)  All  new  propositions  of  improvement  that  may 
from  time  to  time  during  the  session  be  brought  to  the 
notice  of  the  Convention,  either  by  individual  members 
or  by  memorials  from  Diocesan  Conventions.  Such  a 
Committee  of  Conference,  holding  daily  sessions  of 
three  or  four  hours  each,  would  be  able  in  due  time  to 
report  a  carefully  digested  scheme  which  could  then  be 
intelligently  discussed.  By  this  method  a  flood  of 
frivolous  and  aimless  talk  would  be  cut  off  without  in 
the  slightest  degree  infringing  or  limiting  the  real 
liberty  of  debate. 

But  even  if  the  Convention  were  to  show  itself  reluc- 
tant to  give  to  a  select  committee  so  large  a  power  as 
this  of  preparing  an  agenda  paper,  it  still  would  be  possi- 
ble to  refer  to  such  a  committee  the  subject-matter  of  so 


ITS   CRITICS   AND    ITS   PROSPECTS.  173 

many  of  the  resolutions  as  might  chance,  when  put  upon 
their  passage,  to  fail  by  a  narrow  vote. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  various  recommenda- 
tions contained  in  the  resolutions  of  1883  are  to  be  voted 
upon  in  ipsissimis  verbis.  There  will  be  no  opportunity 
for  the  familiar  cry  :  "  Mr.  President,  I  rise  to  propose  an 
amendment."  The  resolution,  or  the  section  of  a  resolu- 
tion, as  the  case  may  be,  will  either  be  approved  just  as 
it  stands  or  condemned  just  as  it  stands.  In  this  respect 
there  will  be  an  immense  saving  of  time.  Most  of  the 
tediousness  of  debate  grows  out  of  the  natural  disposi- 
tion of  legislators  to  try  each  his  own  hand  at  bettering 
the  thing  proposed  ;  hence  "  amendments,"  "amendments 
to  amendments,"  and  substitutes  for  the  amendment  to  the 
amendment.  Even  the  makers  of  parliamentary  law  (much 
enduring  creatures)  lose  their  patience  at  this  point,  and 
peremptorily  lay  it  down  that  confusion  shall  no  further  go. 

But  to  return  to  the  supposed  case  of  a  proposition 
lost  because  of  some  slight  defect,  which,  if  only  our 
Medo-Persian  law  had  permitted  an  amendment,  could 
easily  have  been  remedied.  Surely  the  sensible  course 
in  such  a  case  as  that  would  be  to  refer  the  subject-matter 
of  the  lost  resolution  to  the  Committee  of  Conference, 
with  instructions  to  report  a  new  resolution  to  be  finally 
acted  upon  three  years  hence.  So  then,  whether  there 
be  given  to  the  Committee  of  Conference  either  the 
large  power  to  recommend  a  carefully  thought  out  way 
of  dealing  with  all  the  material  en  bloc,  or  the  lesser 
function  of  sitting  in  judgment  on  new  propositions,  and 
of  remoulding  rejected  ones,  in  either  case  there  could 
scarcely  fail  to  result  from  the  appointment  of  such  a 
committee  large  and  substantial  gains. 


174  THE   BOOK    ANNEXED 


IMPROVEMENTS. 


It  follows,  from  what  has  been  said,  that  if  there  are 
features  that  admit  of  improvement  in  the  proposals 
which  the  Convention  has  laid  before  the  Church  for 
scrutiny,  now  is  emphatically  the  time  for  suggesting 
the  better  thing  that  might  be  done.  Even  the  bitter- 
est opponents  of  The  Book  Annexed  can  scarcely  be  so 
sanguine  as  to  imagine  that  nothing  at  all  is  coming 
from  this  labored  movement  for  revision.  A  measure 
which  was  so  far  forth  acceptable  to  the  accredited 
representatives  of  the  Church,  in  council  assembled,  as 
to  pass  its  first  stage  three  years  ago  almost  by  acclama- 
tion, is  not  destined  to  experience  total  collapse.  The 
law  of  probabilities  forbids  the  supposition.  The  per- 
sonal make-up  of  the  next  General  Convention  will  be 
to  a  great  extent  identical  with  that  of  the  last,  and  of 
the  one  before  the  last.  Sober-minded  men  familiar 
with  the  work  of  legislation  are  not  accustomed  to  reverse 
their  own  well  considered  decisions  without  weighty 
cause.  The  strong  probability  is  that  something  in  the 
line  of  emendation,  precisely  how  much  or  how  little 
no  one  can  say,  will,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  be  done.  In 
view  of  this  likelihood,  would  not  those  who  are  dissat- 
isfied with  The  Book  Annexed  as  it  stands  be  taking 
the  wiser  course  were  they  to  substitute  co-operative  for 
vituperative  criticism  ?  So  far  as  the  present  writer  is 
in  any  sense  authorized  to  speak  for  the  friends  of 
revision,  he  can  assure  the  dissidents  that  such  co-opera- 
tion would  be  most  welcome. 

A.  B.,  a  scholar  thoroughly  familiar,  we  will  suppose, 


ITS    CRITICS   AND    ITS    PROSPECTS,  175 

with  the  sources  of  liturgical  material,  is  dissatisfied  with 
the  collects  proposed  for  the  successive  days  of  Holy 
Week.  Very  well,  he  has  a  perfect  right  to  his  dissatis- 
faction and  to  the  expression  of  it  in  the  strongest  terms  at 
his  command.  He  does  only  his  plain  duty  in  seeking  to 
exclude  from  the  Prayer  Book  anything  that  seems  to  him 
unworthy  of  a  place  in  it.  But  seeing  that  he  must 
needs,  as  a  "  liturgical  expert,"  acknowledge  that  the 
deficiency  which  the  Joint  Committee  sought  to  make 
good  is  a  real  and  not  a  merely  fancied  deficiency,  would 
not  A.  B.  approve  himself  a  more  judicious  counsellor  if, 
instead  of  bending  all  his  energy  to  the  disparagement 
of  the  collects  proposed,  he  sliould  devote  a  portion  of  it 
to  the  discovery  and  suggestion  of  prayers  more  happily 
worded  ? 

And  this  remark  holds  good  with  reference  to  what- 
ever new  feature  is  to  be  found  between  the  covers  of 
The  Booh  Annexed.  If  betterment  be  possible,  these 
six  months  now  lying  before  us  afford  the  time  of  all 
times  in  which  to  show  how,  with  the  least  of  loss  and 
most  of  gain,  it  may  be  brought  about. 

The  Diocese  of  Maryland  is  first  in  the  field  with 
an  adequate  contribution  of  this  sort.  A  thoroughly 
competent  committee,  appointed  in  October,  1884,  has 
recently  printed  its  Report,  and  whether  the  Diocesan 
Convention  adopt,  amend,  or  reject  what  is  presented  to 
it,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  mind  of  the  Church 
at  large  will  be  perceptibly  affected  by  what  these  repre- 
sentative men  of  Maryland  have  said.*  Apart  from  a 
certain  aroma  of  omniscience  pervading  it  (with  which, 
by  the  way,  sundry  infelicities  of  language  in  the  text 
*The  Report  was  adopted. 


176  THE  book  annexed: 

of  the  Report,  only  indifferently  consort),  the  document, 
is  a  forcible  one,  and  of  great  practical  value. 

The  Committee  have  gone  over  the  entire  field 
covered  by  the  "  Notification  to  the  Dioceses,"  taking  up 
the  Resolutions  one  by  one,  and  not  only  noting  in  con- 
nection with  each  whatever  is  in  itself  objectionable,  but 
also  (a  far  more  difficult  task)  suggesting  in  what  respect 
this  or  that  proposition  might  be  better  put.  The  appa- 
ratus criticus  thus  provided,  while  not  infallible,  is  emi- 
nently helpful,  sets  a  wholesome  pattern,  and  if  supple- 
mented by  others  of  like  tenor  and  scope,  will  go  far  to 
lighten  the  labor  of  whatever  committee  may  have 
the  final  recension  of  the  whole  work  put  into  its 
hands.* 

It  would  be  a  poor  self-conceit  in  the  framers  of  The 
Booh  Annexed,  that  should  prompt  them  to  resent  as 
intrusive  any  criticism  whatsoever.  What  we  all  have 
at  heart  is  the  bringing  of  our  manual  of  worship  as 
nearly  as  possible  to  such  a  pitch  of  perfectness  as  the 
nature  of  things  human  will  allow.  The  thing  we  seek 
is  a  Liturgy  which  shall  draw  to  itself  everything  that 
is  best  and  most  devout  within  our  national  borders,  a 
Common  Prayer  suited  to  the  common  wants  of  all 
Americans.  Whatever  truly  makes  for  this  end,  it  will 
be  our  wisdom  to  welcome,  whether  those  who  bring  it 
forward  are  popularly  labelled  as  belonging  to  this, 
that,  or  the  other  school  of  Churchmanship.  To  allow 
party  jealousies  to  mar  the  symmetry  and  fulness  of  a 
work  in  which  all  Churchmen  ought  to  have  an  equal 
inheritance  would   be  the  worst  of   blunders.     By  all 

*In  addition  to  the  Maryland  Report  we  have  now  a  still  more 
admirable  one  from  Central  New  York. 


ITS   CRITICS   AND   ITS    PROSPECTS.  Ill 

means  let  the  raiment  of  needlework  and  the  clothing  of 
wrought  gold  be  what  they  should  be  for  such  sacred 
uses  as  hers  who  is  the  daughter  of  the  great  King,  but 
let  us  not  fall  to  wrangling  about  the  vats  in  which  the 
thread  was  dyed  or  the  river  bed  from  which  the  gold 
was  gathered. 

In  a  later  paper  the  present  writer  intends  to  venture 
upon  a  task  similar  to  that  undertaken  by  the  Maryland 
Committee.  He  will  do  this  largely  in  the  hope  of  en- 
couraging by  example  other  and  more  competent 
critics  to  busy  themselves  in  the  same  way.  Mean- 
while a  few  observations  may  not  be  amiss  with  re- 
spect to  the  sources  of  liturgical  material,  and  the 
methods  by  which  they  can  be  drawn  upon  to  the  best 
advantage. 

There  has  been,  first  and  last,  a  deal  of  ill  considered 
talk  about  the  boundlessness  of  the  liturgical  treasures 
lying  unused  in  the  pre-Reformation  formularies  of  the 
English  Church,  as  well  as  in  the  old  sacramentaries  and 
office-books  of  the  East  and  the  West.  Wonder  is  ex- 
pressed that  with  such  limitless  wealth  at  its  command, 
an  "  Enrichment  Committee  "  should  have  brought  in  so 
poverty-stricken  a  Report.  Have  we  not  Muratori 
and  Mabillon  ?  it  is  asked  :  Daniel  and  Assemani,  Re- 
naudot  and  Goar  ?  Are  there  not  Missals  Roman, 
Ambrosian,  and  Mozarabic  ?  Breviaries  Anglican, 
Gallican,  and  Quignonian  ?  Has  Maskell  delved  and 
Neale  translated  and  Littledale  compiled  in  vain  ?  To 
all  of  which  there  are  two  replies,  namely  :  first,  It  is 
inexpedient  to  overload  a  Prayer  Book,  even  if  the 
material  be  of  the  best  ;  and  secondly,  This  best  material 
is  by  no  means  so  abundant  as  the  volume  of  our  re- 


1*78  THE    BOOK   ANNEXED  : 

sources  would  seem  to  suggest.  It  was  for  the  very 
purpose  of  escaping  redundancy  and  getting  rid  of 
surplusage  that  the  Anglican  Reformers  condensed 
Missal,  Breviary,  and  Rituale  into  the  one  small  and 
handy  volume  known  as  the  First  Prayer  Book  of 
Edward  VI.  It  was  a  bold  stroke,  doubtless  denounced 
as  perilously  radical  at  the  time ;  but  experience  has 
justified  Oanmer  and  his  friends.  In  the  whole  history 
of  liturgies  there  is  no  record  of  a  wriser  step.  It  is 
scarcely  possible  so  grievously  to  sin  against  a  people's 
Prayer  Book  as  by  making  it  more  complicated  in  ar- 
rangement and  more  bulky  in  volume  than  need  actu- 
ally requires.  It  was  ground  of  justifiable  pride  with 
the  "Enrichment  Committee"  that  the  Book  which 
they  brought  in,  despite  the  many  additions  it  con- 
tained, was  no  thicker  by  a  single  page  than  the  Prayer 
Book  as  it  is.  To  be  sure,  the  General  Convention 
spoiled  all  this  by  insisting  on  retaining  certain  dupli- 
cated formularies  which  the  Committee  had  very  prop- 
erly dropped  in  order  to  find  room  for  fresh  material. 
But  of  the  Book  as  first  presented,  it  was  possible  to 
say  that  in  no  degree  was  it  more  cumbrous  than  that 
to  which  the  people  were  already  accustomed.  Doubt- 
less it  would  have  been  still  more  to  the  Committee's 
credit  could  they  have  brought  in  an  enriched  Book 
smaller  by  a  third  than  the  Book  in  use  ;  but  this  their 
conservatism  forbade. 

Of  even  greater  moment  is  the  other  point,  which 
concerns  the  quality  of  the  available  material.  It  is  the 
greatest  mistake  in  the  world  to  suppose  that  simply  be- 
cause a  given  prayer  exists,  say  in  an  Oriental  liturgy, 
and   has  been   translated   into   English  by  an  eminent 


ITS   CRITICS   AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  179 

scholar,  it  is  therefore  proper  material  to  be  worked  into 
our  services.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  great  deal  of  devo- 
tional language  of  which  the  Oriental  liturgies  is  made 
up  is  prolix  and  tedious  to  a  degree  simply  insufferable. 
Moreover  in  the  case  of  prayers  in  themselves  admirable 
in  the  original  tongue  in  which  they  were  composed,  all 
is  often  lost  through  lack  of  a  verbal  felicity  in  tiie 
translation.  If  anyone  questions  this  judgment,  let 
him  toil  through  Neale's  and  Littledale's  Translations 
of  the  Primitive  Liturgies  and  see  whether  he  can  find 
six,  nay,  three,  consecutive  lines  which  he  would  be 
willing  to  see  introduced  into  our  own  Communion 
Office.  Or,  as  respects  translations  from  the  Latin  office- 
books  of  the  Church  of  England,  let  him  scrupulously 
search  the  pages  of  the  "  Sarum  Hours,"  as  done  into  the 
vernacular  by  the  Recorder  of  Salisbury,  and  see  how 
many  of  the  Collects  strike  him  as  good  enough  to  be 
transplanted  into  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  The 
result  of  this  latter  voyage  of  discovery  will  be  an  in- 
creased wonder  at  the  affluence  of  the  mediaeval  devo- 
tions, combined  with  amazement  at  the  poverty  and 
unsatisfactoriness  of  the  existing  translations.  It  is  with 
a  Latin  collect  as  with  a  Greek  ode  or  an  Italian  sonnet : 
no  matter  how  wonderful  the  diction,  the  charm  of  it  is 
as  a  locked  secret  until  the  thing  has  been  Englished  by 
genius  akin  to  his  who  first  made  it  out  of  his  own 
heart.  Of  others  besides  the  many  brave  men  who 
lived  before  Agamemnon  might  it  be  written  : 

sed  omnes  illacrumabiles 
Urgentur,  jgnotique  larga 
Nocte,  carent  quia  vate  sacro. 

It  was  the  peculiar  felicity  of  Schiller  that  he  had  Cole- 


180  THE   BOOK    ANNEXED  : 

ridge  for  a  translator,  and  the  shades  of  Gregory  and 
Leo  owe  it  to  a  living  Anglican  divine  that  we  English- 
speaking  Christians  can  think  their  thoughts  after  them, 
and  pray  their  prayers. 

Such  being  the  facts  in  the  case,  it  is  evident  that  the 
range  of  choice  open  to  American  revisers  is  far  nar- 
rower than  half-informed  persons  imagine  it  to  be. 

The  very  best  sources  of  liturgical  material  are  the 
following  : 

(a)  King  James's  Bible,  including  the  Apocrypha,  and 
supplemented  by  the  Prayer  Book  version  of  the  Psalms  ; 

(b)  The  old  Sacramentaries,  Leonine,  Gregorian, 
and  Gelasian,  chiefly  as  illustrated  by  the  genius  of 
Dr.  Bright  ; 

(c)  The  Breviary  in  its  various  forms  ; 

(d)  The  Primers  and  other  like  fragmenta  of  the  era 
of  the  English  Reformation  ;  * 

(e)  The  devotional  writings  of  the  great  Anglican 
divines  of  the  school  of  Andrews,  Ken,  and  Taylor  ;f 
and  last  and  least, 

(/)  The  various  manuals  of  prayer,  of  which  the  past 
twenty  years  have  shown  themselves  so  prolific. \ 

*  Strangely  enough  the  Elizabethan  period,  so  rich  in  genius  of 
every  other  type,  seems  to  have  been  almost  wholly  barren  of 
liturgical  power.  Men  had  not  ceased  to  write  prayers,  as  a  stout 
volume  in  the  Parker  Society's  Library  abundantly  evidences ;  but 
they  had  ceased  to  write  them  with  the  terseness  and  melody  that 
give  to  the  style  of  the  great  Churchmen  of  the  earlier  reigns  so 
singular  a  charm. 

fThe  liturgical  manuscripts  of  Sanderson  and  "Wren,  made 
public  only  recently  by  the  late  Bishop  of  Chester,  ought  to  be 
included  under  this  head. 

%  Many  of  these  "Treasuries,"  "Golden  Gates,"  and  the  like,  have 


ITS   CRITICS   AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  181 

Of  the  Anglican  writers,  Jeremy  Taylor  would  be  by 
far  the  most  helpful,  were  it  not  for  the  efflorescence  of 
his  style.  As  it  is,  the  best  use  that  can  be  made  of  his 
exuberant  devotions  is  to  cull  from  them  here  and  there 
a  telling  phrase  or  a  musical  cadence.  The  "  General 
Intercession,"  for  example,  on  page  50  of  The  Book 
Annexed,  is  a  cento  to  which  Taylor  is  the  chief  con- 
tributor. 

That  the  Enrichment  Committee  made  the  best  pos- 
sible use  of  the  various  quarries  to  which  they  had 
access  is  unlikely.  Even  if  they  credited  themselves 
with  having  done  so,  it  would  be  immodest  of  them  to 
say  it.  Better  material  than  any  that  their  researches 
brought  to  light  may  still  be  lying  near  the  surface, 
somewhere  close  at  hand,  waiting  to  be  unearthed. 
Certainly  this  paper  will  not  have  been  written  in  vain 
if  it  serves  the  purpose  of  provoking  to  the  good  work 
of  discovery  some  of  those  who  on  the  score  both  of 
quality  and  of  quantity  account  what  has  been  thus  far 
done  in  the  line  of  revision  inadequate  and  meagre. 

here  and  there  something  good,  but  for  the  most  part  they  are 
disfigured  by  sins  against  that  "  sober  standard  of  feeling,"  than 
which,  as  a  high  authority  assures  us,  nothing  except  "a  sound 
rule  of  faith"  is  more  important  "  in  matters  of  practical  religion." 
Of  all  of  them,  Scudamore's  unpretentious  little"  Manual "  is,  per- 
haps, the  best. 


182  THE    BOOK   ANNEXED  : 


III. 

It  is  next  proposed  to  take  up  the  Philadelphia  Reso- 
lutions of  Revision  (1883)  one  by  one,  and  to  consider 
in  what  measure,  if  in  any,  the  subject-matter  of  each 
of  them  lies  open  to  improvement. 

Should  the  method  of  procedure  recommended  in  the 
previous  paper,  or  any  method  resembling  it,  find  favor 
at  the  approaching  Convention,  and  a  Conference  Com- 
mittee of  the  two  Houses  be  appointed  to  remould  the 
work  with  reference  to  final  action  three  years  hence, 
criticism  of  this  sort,  even  though  inadequate,  can 
scarcely  fail  of  being  in  some  measure  helpful. 

RESOLUTION   I. 

The  Title-page. 

The  proposals  under  this  head  are  two  in  number :  (a) 
that  the  words,  "  together  with  the  Psalter  or  Psalms  of 
David,"  be  dropped  from  the  title-page  as  superfluous, 
and  (b)  that  a  general  title,  "  The  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,"  be  printed  on  the  first  page  of  the  leaf  pre- 
ceding the  title-page. 

Neither  of  these  suggestions  is  of  any  great  impor- 
tance, and  the  interest  attaching  to  them  is  mainly 
bibliographical.  Whenever  any  addition  has  been 
made  to  the  Prayer  Book  of  the  Church  of  England,  the 
rule  has  been  to  note  it  invariably  in  the  Table  of  Con- 
tents, and  sometimes  also  on  the  title-page. 

Until  1662  the  Psalter  formed  no  part  of  the  Prayer 


ITS    CRITICS    AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  183 

Book  ;  it  was  a  volume  by  itself,  and  was  cited  as  such. 
In  fact,  it  was  a  sort  of  "  Hymnal  Companion  to  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer."  In  the  revision  of  1662  the 
Psalter  was  incorporated,  and  immediately  there  ap- 
peared upon  the  title-page  of  the  Common  Prayer,  in 
addition  to  what  had  been  there  before,  the  words,  "  to- 
gether with  the  Psalter  or  Psalms  of  David  printed  as 
they  are  to  be  sung  or  read  in  the  churches."  The 
present  title-page  of  the  English  Book  has  a  singularly 
crowded  and  awkward  look,  contrasting  most  unfavor- 
ably in  this  regard  with  those  of  1559,  1552,  and  1549.* 
But  if  the  needless  mention  of  the  Psalter  on  our 
present  title-page  gives  pleasure  to  any  considera- 
ble number  of  people,  it  would  be  foolish  to  press  the 
suggestion  of  a  change.     Let  it  pass. 

Of  a  more  serious  character  would  be  the  omission, 
which  some  urge,  of  the  words  "  Protestant  Episcopal " 
*rom  the  title-page.  Should  anything  of  this  sort  be  done, 
which  is  most  unlikely,  Dr.  Egar's  suggestion  to  drop  the 
words,  "  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,"  leaving  it 
to  read,  "  according  to  the  use  in  the  United  States  of 
America,"  would  carry  the  better  note  of  catholicity. 

But,  after  all,  the  remonstrants  have  only  to  turn  the 
page  to  find  the  obnoxious  "Protestant  Episcopal"  so 
fast  riveted  into  the  Ratification  that  nothing  short  of 
an  act  of  violence  done  to  history  could  accomplish  the 
excision  of  it.  f 

*  For  a  conspectus  of  the  various  title-pages,  see  Keeling's 
Litugim  Britannicm,  London,  1842. 

f  The  question  of  a  change  in  the  name  of  the  Church  is  a  con- 
stitutional, and  in  no  sense  a  liturgical  question.  Let  it  be  con- 
sidered at  the  proper  time,  and  in  a  proper  way,  but  why  thrust 
it  precipitately  into  a  discussion  to  which  it  is  thoroughly  foreign  ? 


184  THE    BOOK   ANNEXED  : 

RESOLUTION   II. 

The  Introductory  Portion. 

(a)  Table  of  Contents. — The  suggestion  *  that  all  en- 
tries after  "  The  Psalter  "  should  be  printed  in  italics,  is 
a  good  one. 

(b)  Concerning  the  Service  of  the  Church. — This  sub- 
stitute for  the  present "  Order  how  the  Psalter  is  ap- 
pointed to  be  read  "  and  "  Order  how  the  rest  of  the  Holy- 
Scripture  is  appointed  to  be  read  "  is  largely  based  on 
the  provisions  of  the  so-called  "  Shortened  Services  Act " 
of  1872.  The  second  paragraph  relating  to  the  use  of 
the  Litany  appears  to  be  superfluous. 

The  enlarged  Table  of  Proper  Psalms  and  the  Table 
of  Selections  of  Psalms,  which  come  under  this  same 
general  heading,  would  be  a  very  great  gain.  Why 
the  Maryland  Committee  should  have  pronounced  the 
latter  Table  "  practically  useless,  since  the  psalms  are 
not  to  be  printed,"  it  is  hard,  in  the  face  of  the  existing 
usage  with  respect  to  "  Proper  Psalms,"  to  understand  ; 
nor  is  there  any  special  felicity  in  the  proposal  emanat- 
ing from  the  same  source  that  the  number  of  the 
Selections  be  cut  down  to  three,  one  for  feasts  and 
one  for  fasts  and  one  for  an  extra  service  on  Sunday 
nights. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Maryland  Committee  does 
well  in  recommending  that  permission  be  given  to  the 
minister  to  shorten  the  Lessons  at  his  discretion,  though 
the  hard  and  fast  condition,  "  provided  he  read  not  less 
than  fifteen  consecutive  verses,"  apart  from  the  ques- 

*  By  the  Maryland  Committee. 


ITS    CRITICS   AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  185 

tionable  English  in  which  it  is  phrased,  smacks  more  of 
the  drill-room  than  of  the  sanctuary.  Far  better  would  it 
be  (if  the  suggestion  may  be  ventured)  to  allow  no  liberty 
of  abridgment  whatever  in  the  case  of  Proper  Lessons, 
while  giving  entire  freedom  of  choice  on  all  occasions 
for  which  no  proper  lessons  have  been  appointed.  So 
far  as  "  ferial "  days  are  concerned,  it  would  be  much 
wiser  to  let  the  Table  of  Lessons  be  regarded  as  sug- 
gestive and  not  mandatory.  The  half-way  recognition 
of  this  principle  in  the  new  Lectionary,  in  which  such  a 
freedom  is  allowed,  provide d  the  Lesson  taken  be  one 
of  those  appointed  for  "  some  day  in  the  same  week," 
seems  open  to  a  suspicion  of  childishness. 

The  rubrical  direction  entitled  "  Hymns  and  An- 
thems" requires  verbal  correction,  but  embodies  a 
wholesome  principle. 

Under  this  same  general  head  of  "  The  Introductory 
Portion  "  come  the  new  Lectionary  and  the  new  Tables 
for  finding  Easter.  Of  these,  the  former  is  law  already, 
except  so  far  as  respects  the  Lessons  appointed  for  the 
proposed  Feast  of  the  Transfiguration.  The  Easter 
Tables  are  a  monument  to  the  erudition  and  accuracy  of 
the  late  Dr.  Francis  Harison.  The  Tables  in  our  present 
Standard  run  to  the  year  1899.  Perhaps  a  "  wholesome 
conservatism  "  ought  to  discover  a  tincture  of  impiety 
in  any  proposal  to  disturb  them  before  the  century  has 
expired. 

RESOLUTION   III. 

The  Morning  Prayer. 

(a)  The  First  Rubric. — The  Maryland  Committee  is 
quite  right  in  remarking  that  the  language  of  this  im- 


186  THE   BOOK   ANNEXED  : 

portant  rubric,  as  set  forth  by  the  Convention  of  1883, 
is  "  inelegant  and  inaccurate,"  but  another  diocese  has 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  substitute  which 
Maryland  offers  would,  if  adopted,  enable  any  rector 
who  might  be  so  minded  to  withhold  entirely  from  the 
non-communicating  portion  of  his  flock  all  opportunity 
for  public  confession  and  absolution  from  year's  end  to 
year's  end.  It  is  not  for  a  moment  to  be  supposed  that 
there  was  any  covert  intention  here,  but  the  incident 
illustrates  the  value  to  rubric-makers  of  the  Horatian 
warning — Brevis  esse  labor  o,  obscurusfio. 

Passing  by  the  Proper  Sentences  for  special  Days  and 
Seasons,  against  which  no  serious  complaint  has  been 
entered,*  we  come  to  the  proposed  short  alternative  for 
the  Declaration  of  Absolution.  As  it  stood  in  the 
Sarum  Use  this  Absolution  ran  as  follows  : 

"  The  Almighty  and  Merciful  Lord  grant  you  Absolu- 
tion and  Remission  of  all  your  sins,  space  for  true  peni- 
tence, amendment  of  life,  and  the  grace  and  consolation 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.     Amen."  f 

With  the  single  change  of  the  word  "  penitence  "  to 

*This  paragraph  was  written  before  the  author  had  been  privi- 
leged to  read  Prof.  Gold's  interesting  paper  in  The  Seminarian. 
It  is  only  proper  to  say  that  this  accomplished  writer  and  very 
competent  critic  does  object  emphatically  to  the  theory  that  the 
opening  Sentences  are  designed  to  give  the  key-note  of  the  Service. 
But  here  he  differs  with  Blunt,  as  elsewhere  in  the  same  paper  he 
dissents  from  Freeman  and  from  Littledale,  admirably  illustrating 
by  his  proper  assertion  of  an  independent  judgment,  the  difficulty 
of  applying  the  Vicentian  rule  in  liturgical  criticism.  Such  vari* 
ations  of  opinion  do,  indeed,  make  against  "  science,"  but  they 
favor  good  sense. 

f  Chambers's  Translation. 


ITS    CRITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  187 

"  repentance  "  this  is  the  form  in  which  the  Absolution 
stood  in  the  original  Book  Annexed.  The  Convention 
thought  that  it  detected  a  "  Romanizing  germ  "  in  the 
place  assigned  to  "  penitence,"  and  an  archaism  in  the 
temporal  sense  assigned  to  "  space,"  and  accordingly  re- 
arranged the  whole  sentence.  But  in  their  effort  to  mend 
the  language,  our  legislators  assuredly  marred  the  music* 

(e)  The  Benedictus  es,  Domine. — The  insertion  of 
this  Canticle  as  an  alternate  to  the  Te  Deum  was  in  the 
interest  of  shortened  services  for  week-day  use,  as  has 
been  already  explained.  The  same  purpose  could  be 
served  equally  well,  and  the  always  objectionable  ex- 
pedient of  a  second  alternate  avoided,  by  spacing  off 
the  last  six  verses  of  the  Benedicite,  which  have  an 
integrity  of  their  own,  and  prefixing  a  rubric  similar  to 
those  that  stand  before  the  Venite  and  the  Benedictus 
in  "  The  Book  Annexed  "  ;  e.  g. : 

%  On  week-days,  it  shall  suffice  if  only  the  latter  por- 
tion of  this  Canticle  be  said  or  sung. 

(n)  The  Benedictus. — With  reference  to  the  restora- 
tion of  the  last  portion  of  this  Hymn,  it  has  been 
very  properly  remarked  by  one  of  the  critics  of  TJxe 
Booh  Annexed,  that  the  line  of  division  between  the 
required  and  the  optional  portions  would  more  properly 
come  after  the  eighth  than  after  the  fourth  verse.     This 

*  This  is  not  to  be  understood  as  an  acknowledgment  that  the  doc- 
trinal and  philological  objections  to  the  formulary  as  it  originally 
stood  were  sound  and  sufficient.  On  the  lips  of  a  Church  which 
declares  "  repentance  "  to  be  an  act  whereby  we  "  forsake  sin," 
a  prayer  for  time  does  not  seem  wholly  inappropriate,  while  as 
for  this  use  of  the  word  "space  "  of  which  complaint  was  made, 
it  should  be  noticed  that  King  James's  Bible  gives  us  nineteen 
precedents  for  it ;  and  the  Prayer  Book  itself  one. 


188  THE    BOOK    ANNEXED  I 

would  make  the  portion  reserved  for  Advent  begin  with 
the  reference  to  John  the  Baptist,  as  undoubtedly  it 
ought  to  do  :  "And  thou,  child,  shalt  be  called  the 
Prophet  of  the  Highest." 

(o)  De  Profundis. — There  will  probably  be  general 
consent  to  the  omission  of  this  alternate,  as  being  what 
the  Maryland  Committee  naively  call  it,  "  too  mournful 
a  psalm  "  for  this  purpose.* 

RESOLUTION  IV. 

Daily  Evening  Prayer. 

(c)  The  proposed  words,  "  Let  us  humbly  confess  our 
sins  unto  Almighty  God,"  are  justly  thought  by  many  to 
be  inferior  both  in  rhythm  and  in  dignity  to  "Let  us  make 
humble  confession  to  Almighty  God." 

(i)-(l)  There  seems  to  be  absolute  unanimity  in  the 
judgment  that  Magnificat  and  Nunc  Dimittis  ought, 
as  Gospel  Hymns,  to  have  the  prior  places  after  the 
Lessons   which   they  follow.     In  the   interest  of  sim- 

*  In  The  Book  Annexed,  as  originally  presented,  there  stood 
in  this  place  the  beautiful  and  appropriate  psalm,  Levavi  oculos. 
But  the  experts  declared  that  this  would  never  do,  since  from 
time  immemorial  Levavi  oculos  had  been  a  Vesper  Psalm,  and  it 
would  be  little  less  than  sacrilege  to  insert  it  in  a  morning  service, 
however  congruous  to  such  a  use  the  wording  of  it  might,  to  an  un- 
scientific mind,  appear.  Accordingly  the  excision  was  made  ;  but 
upon  inquiry  it  turned  out  that  the  monks  had  possessed  a  larger 
measure  of  good  sense,  as  well  as  a  better  exegesis,  than  the  Con- 
vention had  attributed  to  them,  for  Levavi  oculos,  it  appears,  be- 
sides being  a  Vesper  psalm,  stood  assigned,  in  the  Sarum  Breviary, 
to  Prime  as  well ;  the  fact  being  that  the  psalm  is  alike  adapted  to 
morning  and  to  evening  use,  and  singularly  appropriate  both  to  the 
"going  out  "  and  the  "  coming  in  "  of  the  daily  life  of  man. 


ITS   CRITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  189 

plicity  of  arrangement  a  like  general  consent  to  omit 
altogether  Bonum  est  confiteri  and  Benedic  anima  mea 
would  be  most  fortunate,  but  this  point  has  been  already 
enlarged  upon  in  a  previous  paper.* 

The  "  T  Notes,"  permitting  the  use  of  Psalms  xlii. 
and  xliii.  after  the  Lessons  during  Lent,  seem  to  have 
found  no  favor  in  any  quarter,  and  ought  undoubtedly 
to  be  dropped. 

(n)  If  the  lost  versicles  are  to  be  restored  after  the 
Creed,  as  all  who  have  learned  to  love  them  in  the  service 
of  the  Church  of  England  must  earnestly  desire,  some 
better  substitute  for  "  God  save  the  queen,"  than  "  O 
Lord,  save  our  rulers,"  ought  surely  to  be  found.f 
Moreover,  the  order  of  the  versicles,  as  Prof.  Gold  has 
clearly  pointed  out,  J  is  open  to  improvement. 

RESOLUTION   V. 

The  Beatitudes  of  the  Gospel. 

This  is  the  one  feature  of  The  Book  Annexed  against 
which  the  fire  of  hostile  criticism  has  been  the  most 
persistently  directed.  Whether  the  strictures  passed 
upon  the  Office  have  been  in  all  cases  as  intelligent  as 

*  See  p.  6. 

f  "  O  Lord,  bow  thine  ear,"  has  been  suggested  as  a  substitute. 
It  is  in  the  words  of  Holy  Scripture,  it  is  the  precise  metrical 
equivalent  of  "  O  Lord,  save  the  queen,"  and  it  is  directly  an- 
tiphonal  to  the  versicle  which  follows. 

There  being  no  Established  'Church  in  the  United  States,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  any  prayers  for  "  rulers  "  are  desirable,  over  and 
above  those  we  already  have.  And  if  this  point  be  conceded,  the 
other  considerations  mentioned  may  be  allowed  to  have  weight  in 
favor  of  "  O  Lord,  bow  thine  ear." 

X  The  Seminarian,  1886,  pp.  29,  30. 


190  .  THE    BOOK    ANNEXED  : 

they  have  been  severe,  may  be  open  to  question,  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  that,  in  its  present  form, 
Resolution  V.  would,  if  put  to  the  vote,  be  rejected. 

Passing  by  the  more  violent  utterances  of  those  whose 
language  almost  suggests  that  they  find  something  ob- 
jectionable in  the  very  Beatitudes  themselves,*  it  will 
suffice  to  consider  and  weigh  what  has  been  said  in 
various  quarters,  first,  about  the  unprecedented  character 
of  the  Office,  and  secondly,  concerning  the  infelicity  of 
the  appointed  response,  "  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us,  and 
be  it  unto  thy  servants  according  to  thy  word." 

So  far  as  concerns  precedent,  it  ought  to  be  enough 
to  say  that  the  words  are  our  Lord's  words,  and  that 
they  were  thrown  by  him  into  a  form  which  readily 
lends  itself  to  antiphonal  use.  The  very  same  character- 
istics of  parallelism  and  antithesis,  that  make  the  Psalms 
so  amenable  to  the  purposes  of  worship,  are  conspicuous 
in  the   Beatitudes.      If  the  Church  of  England,  for 

*  It  may  he  well  to  throw,  into  a  foot-note  a  single  illustration 
of  what  might  otherwise  be  thought  an  extravagant  statement. 
The  Rev.  W.  C.  Bishop,  writing  in  The  Church  Eclectic  for  Febru- 
ary, 1884,  says  : 

"  The  service  of  the  Beatitudes  proposed  by  the  Committee  is 
just  one  of  '  fancy-liturgy  making,'  which  ought  to  be  summarily 
rejected.  We  have  more  than  enough  of  this  sort  of  thing  already  ; 
the  commandments,  comfortable  wTords,  et  hoc  genus  omne,  are 
anything  but  '  unique  glories '  of  our  Liturgy.  Anything  of 
which  we  have  exclusive  possession  is  nearly  certain  to  be  a 
'  unique  blunder,'  instead  of  anything  better,  because  the  chances 
are  a  thousand  to  one  that  anything  really  beautiful  or  edifying 
would  have  been  discovered  by,  and  have  commended  itself  to, 
some  other  Christians  in  the  last  two  thousand  years."  If  such  is 
to  be  the  nomenclature  of  our  new  "  science,"  Devotion  may  well 
stand  aghast  in  the  face  of  Liturgies. 


ITS   CEITICS   AND   ITS   PKOSPECTS.  191 

three  hundred  years,  has  been  willing  to  give  place  in 
her  devotions  to  the  Curses  of  the  Old  Testament,*  we 
of  America  need  not  to  be  afraid,  precedent  or  no  prec- 
edent, to  make  room  among  our  formularies  for  the 
Blessings  of  the  New. 

Those  who  allow  themselves  to  characterize  the 
liturgical  use  of  these  memorable  sayings  of  the  Son  of 
Man  as  "fancy  ritual  "  and  "  sentimentalism  "  may  well 
pause  to  ask  themselves  what  manner  of  spirit  they  are 
of.  The  Beatitudes  are  the  charter  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  If  they  are  "  sentimental,"  the  kingdom  is 
"sentimental";  but  if,  on  the  other  hand,  they  con- 
stitute the  organic  law  of  the  People  of  God,  they  have 
at  least  as  fair  a  right  as  the  Ten  Commandments  to  be 
published  from  the  altar,  and  answered  by  the  great 
congregation. 

But  is  the  complaint  of  "no  precedent"  a  valid  one, 
even  supposing  considerations  of  intrinsic  fitness  to  have 
been  ruled  out  ? 

The  Liturgy  of  St.  Chrysostom  provides  that  the 
Beatitudes  shall  be  sung  on  Sundays  in  room  of  the 
third  antiphon.f 

The  learned  Bishop  of  Haiti,  in  a  paper  warmly  com- 
mending the  liturgical  use  of  the  Beatitudes,^  calls 
attention  to  the  further  fact  that  the  Eight  Sayings 

*  See  the  Commination  Office  in  the  Prayer  Book  of  the  Church 
of  England. 

f  Daniel's  Codex  Liturgicus,  vol.  iv.  p.  343.  Quoted  in 
Dictionary  of  Christian  Antiquities.  The  translation  of  fxaKapco/ioi 
has  been  doubted ;  but  Dr.  Neale  and  Prof.  Cheetham  agree 
that  the  reference  is  to  the  Beatitudes  of  the  Gospel. 

%  Church  Eclectic  for  April,  1884. 


192  THE    BOOK   ANNEXED  ! 

have  a  place  in  some  of  the  service-books  of  the  Eastern 
Church  in  the  Office  for  the  Sixth  and  Ninth  Hours,  and 
notes  the  suggestive  and  touching  circumstances  that, 
as  there  used,  they  have  for  a  response  the  words  of  the 
penitent  thief  upon  the  cross.  "We  might  all  of  us  well 
pray  to  be  "remembered"  in  that  kingdom  to  which 
these  Blessings  give  the  law. 

In  The  Primer  set  forth  by  the  King's  Majesty  and 
his  Clergy  in  1545,  a  sort  of  stepping-stone  to  the 
later  "Book  of  Common  Prayer,"  we  find  the  Beati- 
tudes very  ingeniously  worked  into  the  Office  of  The 
Hours,  as  anthems  ;  beginning  with  Prime  and  ending 
with  Evensong.  Appropriate  Collects  are  interwoven, 
some  of  them  so  beautiful  as  to  be  well  worth  pre- 
serving.* 

But  the  most  interesting  precedent  of  all  remains  still 
to  be  studied.  In  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  William 
and  Mary,  a  Royal  Commission  was  appointed  to  revise 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.    The  most  eminent  Angli- 

*  The  following  will  serve  as  an  illustration : 

The  Anthem; 
Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  get  mercy ;  blessed  are 
the  clean  in  the  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God. 
The  Versicle: 
Lord  hear  my  prayer. 
The  Answer : 
And  let  my  cry  come  to  thee- 
Let  us  pray. 
Lord  Jesu  Christ,  whose  property  is  to  be  merciful,  which  art 
alway  pure  and  clean  without  spot  of  sin ;  Grant  us  the  grace  to 
follow  thee  in  mercifulness  toward  our  neighbors,  and  always  to 
bear  a  pure  heart  and  a  clean  conscience  toward  thee,  that  we  may 
after  this  life  see  thee  in  thy  everlasting  glory,  which  livest  and 
reignest  God,  world  without  end.    Amen. 


ITS    CRITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  193 

can  divines  of  the  day,  including  Tillotson,  Stillingfleet, 
Patrick,  and  Beveridge,  were  among  the  members.  To 
all  outward  appearance  the  movement  came  to  naught ; 
for  the  proposed  revision  was  not  even  put  into  print, 
until  in  1854,  the  House  of  Commons,  in  response  to  a 
motion  of  Mr.  Heywood,  ordered  it  to  be  published  as  a 
Blue-book.  And  yet  in  some  way  our  American  revisers 
of  1789  must  have  found  access  to  the  original  volume 
as  it  lay  hidden  in  the  archbishop's  library  at  Lambeth  ; 
for  not  only  does  their  work  show  probable  evidence  of 
such  consultation,  but  in  their  Preface  they  distinctly 
refer  to  the  effort  of  King  William's  Commission  as  a 
"  great  and  good  work,"  *  a  thing  they  would  scarcely 
have  done  had  they  possessed  no  real  knowledge  of  the 
facts.  Macaulay's  sneering  reference  to  the  work  of  the 
Commission  is  well  known,  but,  strangely  enough,  the 
justice  which  a  Whig  reviewer  withholds,  a  high  Angli- 
can divine  concedes,  for  no  less  exacting  a  critic  than 
Dr.  Neale,  while  manifesting,  as  was  to  be  expected,  a 
general  dislike  of  the  Commissioners  of  1689,  and  of 
their  work,  does  yet  find  something  to  praise  in  what 
they  recommended. f 

Among  the  real  improvements  suggested  by  the  Com- 
mission was  the  liturgical  use  of  the  Beatitudes,  and 
this  in  two  places,  once  in  "  The  Order  for  the  Adminis- 
tration of  the  Lord's  Supper,"  as  an  alternate  to  the 
Ten  Commandments  ;  and  again  in  the  Commination 

*  It  is  interesting  and  suggestive  to  observe  with  how  much  less 
frequency  our  attention  is  called  to  this  paragrapli  of  the  Preface 
than  to  the  later  one  which  asserts  historical  continuity  with  the 
Church  of  England. 

f  Essays  on  Liturgiology ,  p.  226. 


134  THE    BOOK    ANNEXED  ! 

Office  as  a  proper  balance  to  the  Anathemas  of  the 
Law. 

But  the  Commission,  like  the  late  Joint  Committee  on 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  was  unfortunate  in  its 
choice  of  a  response  ;  and  no  wonder,  for  the  task  of 
finding  the  proper  one  is  difficult.* 

A  Beatitude  differs  from  a  Commandment  in  that 
while  the  latter  enjoins  the  former  only  declares.  The 
one  therefore  simply  calls  for  assent,  or,  at  most,  assent 
coupled  with  petition,  while  the  other  peremptorily  de- 
mands a  cry  for  mercy.  The  immemorial  form  of  the 
cry  for  mercy  in  the  devotions  of  Christendom  is  the 
"  Kyrie  eleison,"  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us  ;  the  imme- 
morial form  of  assent  the  word  Amen.  Can  we  do 
better,  therefore,  in  adapting  the  Beatitudes  to  liturgi- 
cal use  than  to  treat  them  precisely  as  the  Curses  are 
treated  in  the  Commination  Office  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, namely,  by  inserting  after  each  one  of  them  a  plain 
Amen  f 

This  recommendation  has  the  great  merit  of  simplicity. 
Two  or  three  strikingly  ingenious  schemes  for  supplying 
each  of  the  Eight  Sayings  with  a  proper  response  of  its 
own  have  been  suggested  ;  f  but  the  objection  to  them 
is  that,  beautiful  though  they  are,  their  complexity 
would  embarrass  and  distress  the  kneeling  worshipper. 
In  these  matters,  practical  drawbacks  have  to  be  taken 
into  account  as  well  as  abstract  excellencies,  and  no 

*  The  response  proposed  by  the  Commissioners  ran,  "  Lord  have 
mercy  upon  us,  and  make  us  partakers  of  this  blessing,"  a  prayer 
unobjectionable  for  substance,  but  painfully  pedestrian  in  style. 

f  Notably  one  in  which  the  responses  are  all  taken  from 
Psalm  li. 


ITS    CRITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  195 

matter  how  felicitous  the  antiphonal  responses,  they 
would  be  worse  than  useless  were  a  puzzled  congrega- 
tion to  refuse  to  join  in  them. 

There  will  be  found  appended  to  this  Paper  a  plan 
for  recasting  the  Office  of  the  Beatitudes  in  such 
a  way  as  to  make  it  coincide  structurally,  as  far  as  it 
goes,  with  the  introductory  portion  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion.* Were  the  Office  to  be  thus  set  forth,  it  would 
be  possible  on  week-days,  and  with  singular  appropriate- 
ness on  Saints'  Days,  to  substitute  the  Beatitudes  for 
the  Commandments,  without  encumbering  the  Commu- 
nion Office  with  an  alternate.  Should  this  suggestion 
find  acceptance,  the  two  Collects  in  the  present  Office  of 
Beatitudes,  which  are  far  too  good  to  be  lost,  one  of 
them  being  the  modified  form  of  a  Leonine  original, 
and  the  other  one  of  the  very  best  of  Canon  Bright's 
own  compositions,  might  be  transferred  to  a  place  among 
the  "  Occasional  Prayers." 

resolution  VI. 

The  Litany. 

The  rubrics  prefixed  to  the  Litany  are  a  gain,  but  ex- 
cept by  the  addition  of  the  two  new  suffrages,  the  one 
for  the  President  and  the  other  for  the  increase  of  the 
ministry,  it  will  probably  be  best  to  leave  the  text  of 
this  formulary  untouched.  Even  in  the  case  of  the  new 
petitions  it  would  be  well  if  they  could  be  grafted  upon 
suffrages  already  existing,  a  thing  that  might  easily  be 
done.f 

*  See  Note  at  the  end  of  this  Paper. 

\E.g.:  "  That  it  may  please  thee  to  send  forth  laborers  into  thy 
harvest,  and  to  have  mercy  upon  all  men." 


196  THE   BOOK   ANNEXED  : 

It  would  be  a  liturgical  improvement  if  the  Litany,  in 
its  shortened  form,  were  to  end  at  the  Christe,  audi, 
and  the  minister  directed  to  return,  at  this  point,  to  the 
General  Thanksgiving  in  the  Morning  Prayer.  This 
would  divide  the  Litany  symmetrically,  instead  of  arbi- 
trarily, as  is  now  done,  and  would  remove  the  General 
Thanksgiving  from  a  place  to  which  it  has  little  claim 
either  by  historical  precedent  or  natural  congruity. 

The  greatest  improvement  of  all  would  be  the  restora- 
tion of  the  august  and  massive  words  of  invocation 
which  of  old  stood  at  the  beginning  of  the  Litany.  The 
modern  invocations  have  a  dignity  of  their  own,  but 
they  are  not  to  be  compared  for  devotional  power  and 
simple  majesty  with  the  more  ancient  ones.  But  for  an 
"  enrichment "  so  good  as  this,  it  is  too  much  to  hope. 


KESOLUTION   VII. 

Prayers  and  Thanksgivings. 

The  Maryland  Committee  *  have  much  to  say  in  criti- 
cism of  this  section,  and  offer  many  valuable  suggestions, 
the  best  of  them  being  a  recommendation  to  print  the 
Prayer  entitled,  "For  Grace  to  speak  the  Truth  in 
Love,"  in  Canon  Bright's  own  words.  Some  of  their 
comments,  on  the  other  hand,  suggest  canons  of  criti- 
cism which,  if  applied  to  "  The  Prayer  Book  as  it  is," 
would  make  havoc  of  its  choicest  treasures.f 

*  See  Report,  pp.  6-9. 

f  "Strike  it  out,"  said  the  literalist  of  a  certain  committee  on 
hymnody,  many  years  ago,  as  he  and  his  colleagues  were  sitting 
in  judgment  on  Watts's  noble  hymn,  "  There  is  a  land  of  pure 


ITS   CRITICS   AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  10V 

The  Committee  of  Central  New  York*  go  much 
further  in  the  line  of  destructive  criticism  than  their 
brethren  of  Maryland,  and  after  excepting  four  of  the 
proposed  prayers,  condemn  all  the  rest  to  dismissal. 

Possibly  this  is  just  judgment,  but  those  who  have 
searched  diligently  the  storehouses  of  devotional  Eng- 
lish, will  think  twice  before  they  consent  to  it.  No 
doubt  the  phraseology  of  some  of  the  proposed  prayers 
might  be  improved.  In  view  of  the  searching  criticism 
to  which  for  three  years  it  has  been  exposed,  it  would 
be  strange  indeed  if  such  were  not  found  to  be  the  case. 
But  the  collection  as  a  whole,  instead  of  suffering  loss, 
ought  to  receive  increment.  At  least  three  or  four  more 
prayers  for  the  work  of  missions  in  its  various  aspects 
ought  to  be  added,  also  a  Prayer  for  the  furtherance  of 
Christian  Education  in  Schools  and  Colleges.  As  Br. 
Dowden  shrewdly  asks,  in  speaking  of  spiritual  needs 
which   we   postpone   expressing  for  lack  of   language 

delight."     "  Either  strike  out  the  whole  hymn  or  alter  that  word, 
'living.' 

"  'Bright  fields,  beyond  the  swelling  flood, 
Stand  dressed  in  living  green.' 

What  sense  is  there  in  '  living '  green  ?  It  is  the  grass  that  lives, 
not  the  green."  Happily  the  suggestion  failed  to  find  a  seconder. 
But  revisers,  whose  work  is  to  be  passed  upon  by  ballot,  may  well 
be  shy  of  idiomatic  English.  Take  such  a  phrase  as,  ' '  Now  for 
the  comfortless  trouble's  sake  of  the  needy";  Lindley  Murray, 
were  he  consulted,  would  have  no  mercy  on  it:  and  yet  a  more 
beautiful  and  touching  combination  of  words  is  not  to  be  found 
anywhere  in  the  Psalter.  It  is  the  utter  lack  of  this  idiomatic 
characteristic  that  makes  "Lambeth  prayers"  proverbially  so 
insipid. 
*  See  Report,  p.  12. 


198  The  book  annexed  i 

sufficiently  artistic  in  form,  "  What  is  the  measure  of 
our  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  united  prayer,  when  we  are 
content  to  go  on,  year  after  year,  and  never  come 
together  to  ask  God  to  supply  those  needs?"  * 

There  is  one  consideration  connected  with  this  supply 
of  special  prayers  too  frequently  lost  out  of  sight. 
While  it  is  perfectly  true  that  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  was  never  designed  to  be  a  Treasury  of  Devotion 
for  individuals,  it  is  equally  true  that  for  thousands  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  fellow-countrymen  who 
live  remote  from  "  Church  book-stores,"  or  lack  the 
means  of  patronizing  them,  the  Prayer  Book  is,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  their  only  devotional  help.  In  countless 
households,  moreover,  many  of  them  bej^ond  "Prot- 
estant Episcopal "  borders  altogether,  the  Prayer  Book 
is  doing  a  work  only  less  beneficent  than  it  might  do, 
were  we  to  concede  a  very  little  more  to  that  outwardly 
illogical  but  spiritually  self-consistent  policy  which, 
breaking  away,  a  century  ago,  from  the  chain  of  prec- 
edent, inserted  in  the  American  Book  "  The  Forms  of 
Prayer  to  be  used  in  Families." 

EESOLUTION   VIII. 

Penitential  Office  for  Ash-  Wednesday. 

This  is  the  English  Commination  Office,  with  the 
introductory  portion  omitted.  It  would  add  to  the 
merit  of  the  formulary,  especially  when  used  as  a 
separate  office,  were  it  to  be  prefaced  by  the  versicle 
and  response,  similarly  employed  in  the  Hereford 
Breviary  : 

*  Quoted  in  The  Church  Eclectic  for  August,  1886. 


ITS    CRITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  199 

V.  Let  us  confess  unto  the  Lord,  for  he  is  gracious. 

JR.  And  his  mercy  endureth  forever. 

In  view  of  the  great  length  of  the  Morning  Service 
on  Ash-Wednesday,  and  the  close  similarity  between 
the  closing  portion  of  the  Litany  and  the  intermediate 
portion  of  this  Office,  the  following  emendation  of  the 
first  Rubric  is  suggested,  a  change  which  would  carry 
with  it  the  omission  of  the  Rubric  after  psalm  li.  a  little 
further  on. 

T  On  the  First  Day  of  Lent,  at  Morning  Prayer,  the 
Office  ensuing  shall  be  read  immediately  after  the  icords, 
Have  mercy  upon  us,  in  the  Litany ',  and  in  place  of 
what  there  followeth. 

In  the  third  Rubric  it  might  be  well  to  add  to  "  shall 
be  said  "  the  words,  "  or  sung" 

The  blessing  at  the  end  of  the  office  should  stand,  as 
in  the  English  Book,  in  the  precatory  form  ;  otherwise 
we  might  have  the  anomaly  of  a  benediction  pro- 
nounced before  the  end  of  the  service. 

RESOLUTION   IX. 

Thanksgiving -day  or  Harvest-home. 

The  only  alteration  needed  in  this  office  is  the  restora- 
tion of  the  beautiful  prayer  for  unity  to  its  own  proper 
wording  as  given  in  the  so-called  "  Accession  Service  " 
appended  to  the  English  Prayer  Book.  As  it  stands  in 
The  Book  Annexed  the  language  of  the  prayer  is 
possibly  ungrammatical  and  certainly  redundant.  A 
critic,  already  more  than  once  quoted,*  protests  against 
the  prominence  given  to  this  office  in  The  Book  An- 

*  Prof.  Gold  in  The  Seminarian,  p.  34. 


200  THE    BOOK    ANNEXED  : 

fiexed,  ascribing  it  to  influences  born  of  the  associa- 
tions of  New  England.  But  although  the  motive  of 
the  revisers  might  have  had  a  worse  origin  than  that  of 
which  the  reviewer  complains,  the  actual  fact  is  that 
the  formulary  was  placed  where  it  is  purely  in  considera- 
tion of  the  liturgical  fitness  of  things  ;  it  having  been 
held  that  the  proper  position  for  an  Office  of  Thanks- 
giving must  be  in  immediate  sequence  to  an  Office  of 
Penitence. 

It  is  with  sincere  diffidence  that  the  present  writer 
differs  with  The  Seminarian,  on  a  point  of  historical 
precedent,  but  he  ventures  to  suggest  that  to  find  the 
prototype  of  Harvest-home  we  must  go  back  far  beyond 
New  England,  and  for  that  matter  far  beyond  Old  Eng- 
land, nay,  beyond  the  Christian  era  itself,  even  to  the 
day  when  it  was  said,  "  Thou  shalt  observe  the  Feast  of 
Tabernacles,  seven  days,  after  that  thou  hast  gathered 
in  thy  corn  and  thy  wine."  Doubtless  there  is  a  joy 
greater  than  the  "  joy  of  harvest,"  and  to  this  we  give 
expression  in  the  Eucharist  ;  but  doubtless  also  the  joy  of 
harvest  is  in  itself  a  proper  joy  and  one  which  finds 
fitting  utterance  in  such  forms  of  prayer  and  praise  as 
this. 

RESOLUTION  XI. 

Collects,  Epistles,  and  Gospels. 

No  department  of  liturgical  revision  calls  for  a  nicer 
touch  than  that  which  includes  the  Collects.  That  new 
collects  for  certain  unsupplied  feasts  and  fasts  would  be 
a  genuine  enrichment  of  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
has  long  been  generally  acknowledged  among  Anglican 


ITS   CRITICS   AND    ITS   PROSPECTS.  201 

scholars.  The  most  weighty  fault  to  be  found  with  the 
collects  added  by  the  revisers  is  that  in  too  large  pro- 
portion they  are  addressed  to  the  second  and  third 
Persons  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  The  Eucharist  itself,  as 
a  whole,  is  properly  conceived  of  as  addressed  to  the 
Eternal  Father.  The  Collects,  as  forming  part  of  the 
Eucharistic  Office,  ought,  strictly  speaking,  to  be  also 
so  addressed.  It  is  true  that  there  are  exceptions  to 
this  rule,  and  they  are  found,  some  of  them,  in  the 
Prayer  Book  as  it  is.  But  the  revisers  ought  not  to 
have  altered  the  proportion  so  markedly  as  they  have 
done,  for  whereas  in  our  present  Book  the  collects  ad- 
dressed to  the  Father  are  as  eighty-three  to  three  com- 
pared with  those  not  so  addressed,  the  ratio  in  The 
Booh  Annexed  is  that  of  eleven  to  three. 

Moreover,  there  would  seem  to  be  no  good  reason  for 
reverting  to  the  usage  of  the  First  Book  of  Edward 
VI.,  which  provides  a  second  Collect,  Epistle,  and  Gos- 
pel for  the  two  great  feasts  of  Christmas  and  Easter. 
A  better  way  would  be  to  take  these  additional  collects, 
which  are  among  the  most  beautiful  in  the  language, 
and  assign  them  respectively  to  the  Sunday  after 
Christmas,  and  the  Monday  in  Easter-week. 

RESOLUTION    XII. 

The  Holy  Communion. 

To  the  few  changes  proposed  in  this  Office,  compara- 
tively slight  exception  has  been  taken  in  any  quarter. 
It  will  probably  be  wise  to  leave  the  language  of  the 
Prayer  of  Consecration  wholly  untouched,  notwithstand- 
ing the  alleged  grammatical  error  near  the  end  of  it. 


202  THE    BOOK   ANNEXED  I 

The  Rubric  which  it  has  been  proposed  to  append  to 
the  Office,  touching  the  number  of  communicants  with- 
out which  it  shall  not  be  lawful  to  administer  the 
Sacrament,  being  of  a  disciplinary  rather  than  of  a 
liturgical  character,  ought  not  to  be  urged.  The  pro- 
posal to  transfer  the  Prayer  of  Humble  Access  to  a 
place  immediately  before  the  Communion  appears  to  be 
very  generally  acceptable. 

It  would  relieve  many  worshippers  who  scruple  as 
Christians  at  responding  to  the  Fourth  Commandment 
on  the  score  of  its  Judaic  character,  if  the  language  of 
the  rubric  prefixed  to  the  Decalogue  could  contain,  as 
did  the  corresponding  rubric  in  Laud's  Book  for 
Scotland,  a  clause  indicative  of  the  mystical  and  spirit- 
ual sense  in  which  th  e  Law  should  be  interpreted  by 
those  who  live  under  the  Gospel.  But  such  a  proposal 
would  probably  be  accounted  "  of  doctrine,"  and  so  be 
self-condemned. 

Of  the  desirability  of  allowing  a  week-day  use  of  the 
Beatitudes  in  the  room  of  the  Commandments  enough 
has  been  already  said. 

RESOLUTION   XVI. 

Confirmation. 

The  permission  to  use  a  form  of  presentation  instead 
of,  or  in  addition  to,  the  Preface  is  likely  to  be  widely 
welcomed.  The  other  addenda  to  this  office,  being  ap- 
parently distasteful  (for  unlike  reasons)  to  all  the 
"  schools  of  thoughts "  in  the  Church,  are  likely  to 
fail  of  acceptance  ;  and  on  the  whole  may  easily  be 
spared. 


ITS   CRITICS    AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  203 

RESOLUTION   XVIII. 

Visitation  of  the  Sick. 

The  proposed  Commendatory  Prayer,  though  in  some 
of  its  features  strikingly  felicitous,  is  open  to  formal 
improvement.  The  addition  of  a  short  Litany  of  the 
Dying  would  be  appreciated  by  those  whose  ministry  is 
largely  exercised  among  the  sick. 

RESOLUTION    XX. 

Burial  of  the  Dead. 

By  far  the  most  important  section  of  this  Resolution 
is  the  one  providing  for  the  insertion  of  special  features 
when  the  office  is  used  at  the  burial  of  children.  The 
provision,  or  at  least  the  suggestion,  of  a  more  appro- 
priate Lesson  would  be  wise,  but  for  the  rest,  the  office 
is  almost  all  that  could  be  wished. 

A  recent  critic  *  raises  the  question, "  Why  single  out 
infants  alone  for  a  special  service  ?  Why  not  forms  for 
rich  men  and  poor  men — old  men  and  maidens — widows 
and  orphans  ?  "  And  yet  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  did 
single  out  little  children  in  a  very  striking  and  wonder- 
ful manner,  and  drew  a  distinction  between  them  and 
us  which  may  well  justify  our  treating  their  obsequies 
with  a  peculiar  tenderness.  Even  Rome,  Mater  dura 
infantum  as  she  has  been  sometimes  thought,  is  studious 
to  consult  in  this  point  the  natural  affections  of  the 
bereaved,  and  appoints  a  funeral  mass  distinct  from  that 
appointed  for  the  dead  in  general. 

Bishop  Seabury  felt  the  need  of  a  rite  of  this  sort  and 
prepared  one,  but  whether  it  was  ever  in   actual  use 

*  The  Rev.  Dr.  Robert  in  The  Churchman  for  July  17,  1886, 


204  THE    BOOK   ANNEXED  : 

among  the  clergy  of  Connecticut  the  writer  is  not  in- 
formed. Many,  very  many,  since  Seabury's  day,  have 
felt  the  same  need,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  one  feature 
of  The  Booh  Annexed  has  enjoyed  so  universal  a  wel- 
come as  this  rightful  concession  to  the  demands  of  the 
parental  heart. 

CONCLUSION. 

The  survey  of  corrigenda  is  now  complete.  The  list 
looks  like  a  long  one,  but  really  the  points  noted  are 
few  compared  with  those  which  have  passed  unchal- 
lenged. Here  and  there  in  the  Resolutions  that  have 
not  been  considered  are  words  or  phrases  that  admit  of 
improvement,  and  which  in  an  actual  and  authorized 
re-review  by  a  Committee  of  Conference  would  undoubt- 
edly be  improved. 

The  bulk  of  the  work  has,  for  a  period  of  three  years, 
stood  the  incessant  fire  of  a  not  always  friendly  criticism 
far  better  than  could  have  been  anticipated  by  those 
who  in  the  first  instance  gave  it  shape.  The  difficul- 
ties of  the  task  have  been  immense.  That  they  have 
not  all  of  them  been  successfully  overcome  is  clear 
enough,  but  that  they  were  faced  with  an  honest  pur- 
pose to  be  just  and  fair,  and  that  this  purpose  was  clung 
to  persistently  throughout,  is  a  credit  which  Churchmen 
of  the  next  generation  will  not  withhold  from  those  who 
sought  to  be  of  service  to  them. 

It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  representatives  of 
the  Church  will  take  up  this  work  and  perfect  it ;  or 
per  contra  in  response  to  the  demand  for  a  "  Com- 
mission   of    Experts,"    or    the     specious    but    utterly 


ITS    CRITICS    AND    ITS    PROSPECTS.  205 

impracticable  *  proposal  of  concerted  action  with  the 
Church  of  England,  will  decide  to  postpone  the  whole 
affair  to  the  Greek  Kalends.  One  thing  is  certain,  to 
wit,  that  the  death  of  this  movement  will  mean  inaction 
for  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  men  do  not 
live  who  will  have  the  courage  to  embark  on  a  fresh 
enterprise  of  the  like  purport  while  the  shipwreck  of 
this  one  is  before  their  eyes.  There  are  many  who,  out 
of  a  conscientious  fear  of  disturbing  what  they  like  to 
think  of  as  permanently  settled,  would  view  such  a  con- 
clusion of  the  whole  matter  with  profound  gratitude  to 
God.  But  there  are  many  more  to  whom  such  a  con- 
fession of  the  Church's  inability  to  appreciate  and  unwil- 
lingness to  meet  the  spiritual  needs  of  a  civilization  won- 
derfully unlike  anything  that  has  preceded  it  would  be 
most  disheartening.  Least  of  all  is  there  valid  ground 
for  hope  in  the  case  of  those  who  fancy  that  if  they  can 
only  annihilate  this  project,  the  day  will  speedily  come 
when  they  can  revise  the  Prayer  Book  in  a  manner  per- 
fectly conformable  to  their  own  conception  of  the 
"Ideal  Liturgy,"  and  after  a  fashion  which  the  most 
ardent  Anglo-Catholic  must  fain  approve. 

The  American  Book  of  Common  Prayer  bears  the 
impress  to-day  of  two  controlling  minds,  the  mind  of 
Seabury  and  the  mind  of  White.  Doubtless  it  stood 
written  in  the  councils  of  the  Divine  Providence  that  so 
it  should  be.  The  two  men  represented  respectively 
the  two  modes  of  apprehending  spiritual  truth   which 

*  Specious,  because  our  continuity  with  the  Church  life  of  Eng- 
land is  inestimably  precious ;  impracticable,  because  there  is  no 
representative  body  of  the  English  Church  authorized  to  treat 
with  us. 


206  THE    BOOK    ANNEXED  I 

have  always  been  allowed  counterplay  and  interaction 
in  the  history  of  English  religion,  and  which  always 
will  be  allowed  such  counterplay  and  interaction  while 
English  religion  remains  the  comprehensive  thing  it  is. 
No  scheme  of  liturgical  revision,  no  matter  how  scien- 
tifically constructed,  will  ever  find  acceptance  with  the 
people  of  this  Church  which  does  not  do  even-handed 
justice  to  both  of  the  great  historic  growths  which  find 
their  common  root  in  Anglican  soil. 

When  the  spirit  of  Seabury  shall  have  completely  ex- 
orcised the  spirit  of  White,  or  the  spirit  of  White  shall 
have  completely  exorcised  the  spirit  of  Seabury  from 
the  Church  and  from  the  Prayer  Book,  logic  will  have 
triumphed,  as  sixteen  years  ago  it  triumphed  under  the 
dome  of  St.  Peter's — logical  consistency  will  have  tri- 
umphed, but  catholicity  will  have  fled. 


ITS   CRITICS  AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  207 

NOTE. 

THE    BEATITUDES    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

%  On  Christmas-day,  Easter-day,  and  Whitsunday, 
and  on  any  week-day  save  Ash-Wednesday  and  Good 
Friday,  this  Office  may  be  used  in  lieu  of  so  much  of 
The  Order  for  the  Administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
as  precedeth  the  Epistle  for  the  Day. 

\This  Office  may  also  be  used  separately  on  occasions 
for  which  no  proper  Order  hath  been  provided. 

If  The  Minister  standing  up  shall  say  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and  the  Collect  following,  the  People  kneeling, 
but  the  Lord's  Prayer  may  be  omitted  if  it  hath  been 
said  immediately  before. 

OUR  Father,  who  art  in  heaven,  Hallowed  be  thy 
Name.  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done 
on  earth,  As  it  is  in  heaven.  Give  us  this  day  our  daily 
bread.  And  forgive  us  our  trespasses,  As  we  forgive 
those  who  trespass  against  us.  And  lead  us  not  into 
temptation  ;  But  deliver  us  from  evil.     Amen. 

The  Collect. 

A  LMIGHTY  God,  unto  whom  all  hearts  are  open, 
-£^-  all  desires  known,  and  from  whom  no  secrets  are 
hid  ;  Cleanse  the  thoughts  of  our  hearts  by  the  inspira- 
tion of  thy  Holy  Spirit,  that  we  may  perfectly  love 
thee,  and  worthily  magnify  thy  holy  Name  ;  through 
Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 


208  THE   BOOK   ANNEXED  J 

%  Then  shall  the  Minister,  turning  to  the  People,  re- 
hearse the  Eight  Sayings  of  our  Lord  commonly  called 
The  Beatitudes  ;  and  the  People,  still  kneeling,  shall 
after  every  one  of  them  reverently  say  Amen. 

Minister. 

Jesus  went  up  into  a  mountain  ;  and  his  disciples 
came  unto  him.  And  he  opened  his  mouth  and  taught 
them,  saying  :  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit  ;  for  theirs 
is  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

Answer.     Amen. 

Minister.  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn  ;  for  they 
shall  be  comforted. 

Answer.     Amen. 

Minister.  Blessed  are  the  meek ;  for  they  shall 
inherit  the  earth. 

Answer.     Amen. 

Minister.  Blessed  are  they  which  do  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness  ;  for  they  shall  be  filled. 

Answer.     Amen. 

Minister.  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart ;  for  they 
shall  see  God. 

Answer.    Amen. 

Minister.  Blessed  are  the  peace-makers  ;  for  they 
shall  be  called  the  children  of  God. 

Answer.     Amen. 

Minister.  Blessed  are  they  which  are  persecuted  for 
righteousness'  sake  ;  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

Answer.     Amen. 

Minister. 

Hear  also  what  the  voice  from  heaven  saith.  Blessed 
are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord. 


ITS   CRITICS   AND   ITS   PROSPECTS.  209 

Answer. 

Even  so,  saith  the  Spirit,  for  they  rest  from  their 
labors. 

Minister. 

Let  us  pray. 

Almighty  and  Eternal  God,  to  whom  is  never  any 
prayer  made  without  hope  of  mercy  ;  Bow  thine  ear, 
we  beseech  thee,  to  our  supplications,  and  in  the  country 
of  peace  and  rest  cause  us  to  be  made  partners  with 
thy  holy  servants  ;  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 
Amen* 

%  Then  shall  be  said  the  Collect  for  the  Day  and, 
unless  the  Holy  Communion  is  immediately  to  follow, 
such  other  prayer  or  prayers,  taken  out  of  this  Book,  as 
the  Minister  shall  think  proper. 

*This  Prayer  has  been  gathered  from  the  Dirige  in  The 
Primer  set  forth  by  the  King's  Majesty  and  his  Clergy,  1545;  the 
same  source  (it  is  interesting  to  note)  to  which  we  trace  the 
English  form  of  the  Collect  foi%  Purity  at  the  beginning  of  the 
office. 


APPENDIX  : 
SERMONS  BEFORE  AND  AFTER. 


APPENDIX. 


PERMANENT  AND  VARIABLE  CHARACTERISTICS  OP 
THE  PRAYER  BOOK. 

A  SERMON  PREACHED  IN  ST.  STEPHEN'S  CHURCH,  PHILADELPHIA, 

ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF    THE    BISHOP  WHITE  PRAYER 

BOOK  S0CD3TY,    SUNDAY,   NOVEMBER  24,    1878. 

One  generation  passeth  away  ■  and  another  generation  cometh.— Eccles.  i.  4. 

Against  the  background  of  this  sombre  fact  of  change,  what- 
ever there  is  in  life  that  is  stable  stands  out  with  a  sharpness  that 
compels  notice.  Just  because  the  world  is  so  full  of  variableness, 
our  hearts'  affections  fasten  with  the  tighter  grip  upon  anything 
that  seems  to  have  the  guarantees  of  permanence.  The  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  appeals  to  us  on  this  score,  precisely  as  the 
Bible,  in  its  larger  measure,  does  :  it  is  the  book  of  many  genera- 
tions, not  of  one,  and  there  is  "the  hiding  of  its  power."  We 
have  received  the  Prayer  Book  from  the  generations  that  are 
gone;  we  purpose  handing  it  on  when  "another  generation 
cometh";  we  hold  it  for  the  use  and  blessing  of  the  generation 
which  now  is. 

Our  thoughts  about  the  book,  therefore,  if  we  would  have  the 
thinking  rightly  done,  must  take  hold  upon  the  past,  the  present, 
and  the  future,  a  breadth  of  topic  covered  well  enough  perhaps  by 

213 


214  APPENDIX. 

this  phrase,  The  Permanent  and  the  Variable  Characteristics  of 
the  Prayer  Book. 

I  make  no  apology  for  asking  you  to  take  up  the  subject  in  so 
grave  a  temper.  Now,  for  more  than  three  hundred  years,  the 
Common  Prayer  has  been  the  manual  of  worship  in  use  with  the 
greater  number  of  the  people  of  that  race  which,  meanwhile,  in 
the  providence  of  God,  has  been  growing  up  to  be  the  leading 
power  on  earth.  Everywhere  the  English  language  seems  to  be 
going  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer,  and  whithersoever  it 
penetrates  it  carries  with  it  the  letters  and  the  social  traditions  of 
a  people  whose  character  has  been  largely  moulded  by  the  influ- 
ences of  the  Prayer  Book.  Africans,  Indians,  Hindoos  are  to-day, 
even  in  their  heathenism,  feeling  the  effects  of  waves  of  move- 
ment which  throb  from  this  centre.  Men  in  authority,  the  world 
over,  are  living  out,  with  more  or  less  of  consistency  and  thorough- 
ness, those  convictions  about  our  duty  toward  God,  and  our  duty 
toward  our  neighbor,  which  were  early  inwrought  into  their 
consciences  through  the  instrumentality  of  these  venerable  forms. 
Surely  no  one  can  afford  to  think  or  speak  otherwise  than  most 
seriously  and  carefully  with  regard  to  a  book  which  has  behind  it 
a  history  so  worthy,  so  rich,  so  pregnant  with  promise  for  the 
future. 

Look  first,  then,  at  the  power  which  the  Prayer  Book  draws 
from  its  affiliations  with  the  past.  It  is  a  common  remark,  so 
common  as  to  be  commonplace,  that  our  liturgy  owes  its  excel- 
lence to  the  fact  of  its  not  having  been  the  composition  or  com- 
pilation of  any  one  man.  So  much  is  evident  enough  upon  the 
face  of  it :  for  a  form  of  worship  devised  off-hand  by  an  indi- 
vidual, or  even  put  together  by  a  committee  sitting  around  a 
table,  could  scarcely  be  wholly  satisfactory  to  any  save  the  maker 
or  the  makers  of  it.  But  it  is  more  to  the  purpose  to  observe 
that  not  only  is  the  Prayer  Book  not  the  result  of  any  one  man's 
or  any  one  committee's  labors  ;  it  is  not  the  work  even  of  any  one 
generation,  or  of  any  one  age. 

The  men  who  gradually  put  the  Prayer  Book  into  what  is  sub- 
stantially its  present  shape,  in  the  days  of  Edward  VI.  and  of 
Elizabeth,  were  no  more  the  makers  of  the  Prayer  Book  than 
were  the  men  who,  in  a  later  reign,  set  forth  what  we  call  "  the 


APPENDIX.  215 

authorized  version  "  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  first  translators 
of  the  Bible.  In  both  cases  the  work  done  was  a  work  of  review 
and  revision.  A  much  more  severe  review,  a  vastly  more  sweep- 
ing revision  in  the  case  of  the  Prayer  Book  than  in  the  case  of 
the  Bible,  I  grant ;  but  still,  mainly  a  work  of  review  and  revision 
after  all.  "  Continuity,"  that  characteristic  so  precious  in  the  eye 
of  modern  science,  continuity  marked  the  whole  process. 

The  first  Prayer  Book  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  England 
was  a  condensed,  simplified,  and  purified  combination  of  formu- 
laries of  worship  already  in  use  in  the  National  Church.  A  cer- 
tain amount  of  new  material,  some  of  it  home-made,  some  of  it 
drawn  from  foreign  sources,  was  added  ;  but  the  great  bulk  of 
the  new  service-book  had  been  contained  in  one  or  other  of  the 
older  manuals.  The  Reformers  did  but  clip  and  prune,  with  that 
exquisite  taste  and  judgment  which  belong  by  tradition  to  Eng- 
lish gardeners,  the  overgrowth  and  rank  luxuriance  of  a  too 
long  neglected,  "careless-ordered"  garden.  But  whence  came 
the  earlier  formularies  themselves,  from  which  Cranmer  and  the 
rest  quarried  the  stone  for  the  new  building  ? — to  change  the 
metaphor  as  Paul,  you  remember,  does  so  suddenly  from  bus 
bandry  to  architecture.*  Whence  came  Missal,  and  Breviary,  and 
Book  of  Offices — the  best  portions  of  which  were  merged  in  the 
English  Common  Prayer  ?  From  the  far  past ;  the  Missal  from 
those  primitive  liturgies  or  communion  services,  some  of  which 
we  trace  back  with  certainty  to  the  later  portion  of  the  ante- 
Nicene  age,  and  by  not  unreasonable  conjecture  to  the  edge  of 
apostolic  days  ;  the  Breviary  or  daily  prayers  from  the  times 
when  Christians  first  took  up  community  life  ;  the  Offices  from 
periods  of  uncertain  date  all  along  the  track  of  previous  Church 
history.  But  what  advantage,  asks  someone  full  of  the  modern 
spirit,  what  advantage  has  the  Common  Prayer  in  that  it  can 
trace  a  genealogy  running  up  through  ages  of  such  uncertain 
reputation  ?  Have  we  not  been  accustomed  to  regard  those  times 
as  hopelessly  corrupt,  impenetrably  dark,  universally  supersti- 
tious ?  Ought  we  not  to  be  mortified,  rather  than  gratified,  to 
learn  that  from  the  pit  of  so  mouldy  a  past  our  book  of  prayer 
was  digged  ?  Would  not  a  brand-new  liturgy,  modernized  ex- 
pressly to  meet  the  needs  of  nineteenth  century  culture,  with  all 
*  1  Cor.  iii.  9. 


216  APPENDIX. 

the  old  English  idioms  displaced,  every  rough  corner  smoothed 
and  every  crooked  place  made  straight — would  not  that  be  some- 
thing far  worthier  our  respect,  better  entitled  to  our  allegiance, 
than  this  book  full  of  far-away  echoes,  and  faint  bell-notes  from  a 
half-forgotten  past  ? 

Yes,  if  modern  man  were  only  modern  man  and  nothing  more, 
such  reasoning  would  be  extremely  cogent.  But  what  if  modern 
man  be  really,  not  the  mere  creature  of  the  century  in  which  he 
lives,  but  the  gathered  sum  ^and  product  of  all  that  has  preceded 
him  in  history  ?  What  if  you  and  I,  from  the  very  fact  that 
we  are  living  now,  have  in  the  dim  groundwork  of  our  nature 
something  that  would  not  have  been  there  had  we  lived  one,  three, 
twelve  hundred  years  ago?  What  if  there  be  such  a  thing  as 
cumulative  acquirement  for  the  race  of  men,  so  that  a  new  genera- 
tion starts  with  an  available  capital  of  associations  and  ideas  of 
which  the  generation  last  preceding  it  owned  but  a  part?  Take 
such  words  as  "  feudalism,"  "  the  Crusades,"  "  the  Renaissance," 
"  the  printing  press,"  consider  how  much  they  mean  to  us,  and 
then  remember  that  to  a  man  of  the  third  century  they  would 
have  been  empty  sounds  conveying  absolutely  no  meaning. 
What  all  this  goes  to  show  is  that  human  nature  is  a  map  which 
is  continually  unrolling.  To  say  that  the  entirety  of  it  lies  be- 
tween the  two  meridians  that  bound  the  particular  tract  in  which 
our  own  little  life  happens  to  be  cast  is  stupid.  The  whole  great 
past  belongs  to  us — river  and  island,  ocean,  forest,  continent,  all 
are  ours.  You  and  the  man  in  armor,  you  and  the  Venetian 
merchant,  you  and  the  cowled  monk  have  something,  be  it  ever 
so  little,  something  in  common.  That  which  was  in  the  fore- 
ground of  their  life  is  now  in  the  background  or  in  the  middle 
distance  of  yours.     It  has  become  a  part  of  you.* 

*  Born  into  life  !— man  grows 

Forth  from  his  parents'  stem, 
And  blends  their  bloods,  as  those 
Of  theirs  are  blent  in  them  ; 
So  each  new  man  strikes  root  into  a  far  foietime. 
Born  into  life  !— we  bring 

A  bias  with  us  here, 
And,  when  here,  each  new  thing 
Affects  ns  we  come  near  ; 
To  tunes  we  did  not  call  our  being  must  keep  chime. 

—Empedocles  on  Etna. 


APPENDIX.  217 

So,  then,  if  we  would  have  a  liturgy  that  shall  speak  to  our 
whole  nature,  and  not  to  a  mere  fraction  of  it,  it  must  be  a  liturgy 
full  of  voices  sounding  out  of  the  past.  There  must  be  reminders 
and  suggestions  in  it  of  all  the  great  epochs  of  the  Church's  story. 
Yes,  echoes  even  from  those  very  ages  which  we  call  dark  (per- 
haps as  much  because  we  are  in  the  dark  about  them  as  on 
account  of  any  special  blackness  attaching  to  the  times  them- 
selves), some  echoes  even  from  them  may  have  a  rightful  place  in 
the  worship  which  is  to  call  out  responsively  all  that  is  in  the 
heart  of  the  most  modern  of  modern  men. 

As  there  were  heroes  before  Agamemnon,  so  were  there  holy 
and  humble  men  of  heart  before  Cranmer  and  Luther,  yes,  and 
before  Jerome  and  Augustine.  If  any  cry  that  ever  went  up  from 
any  one  of  them  out  of  the  depths  of  that  nature  which  they  share 
with  us  and  we  with  them,  if  any  breath  of  supplication,  any 
moan  of  penitence,  any  shout  of  victory  that  issued  from  their  lips 
has  made  out  to  survive  the  noise  and  tumult  of  intervening  times, 
it  has  earned  by  its  very  persistency  of  tone  a  prima  facie  title  to 
be  put  into  the  Prayer  Book  of  to-day.*  And  this  is  why  a  prayer 
book  may  survive  the  wreck  of  many  systems  of  theology.  A 
prayer  book  holds  the  utterance  of  our  needs  ;  a  theological  system 
is  the  embodiment  of  our  thoughts. 

Now  our  thoughts  about  things  divine  are  painfully  fallible  and 
liable  to  change  with  change  of  times ;  but  a  want  which  is 
genuinely  and  entirely  human  is  a  permanent  fact ;  the  great 
needs  of  the  soul  never  grow  obsolete,  and  though  the  language 
in  which  the  lips  shall  clothe  the  heart's  desire  may  alter,  as  tastes 
alter,  yet  the  substance  of  the  prayer  abides,  and  in  some  happy 
instances  the  form  also  abides. 

To  an  eye  that  looks  wisely  and  lovingly  on  such  sights,  there 
is  the  same  keen  sense  of  enjoyment  in  finding  here  and  there  in 

*  "  Parliaments,  prelates,  convocations,  synods  may  order  forms  of  prayer. 
They  may  get  speeches  to  be  spoken  upward  by  people  on  their  knees.  They 
may  obtain  a  juxtaposition  in  space  of  curiously  tessellated  pieces  of  Bible  and 
Prayer  Book.  But  when  I  speak  of  the  rareness  and  preciousness  of  prayers,  I 
mean  such  prayers  as  contain  three  conditions— permanence,  capability  jot 
being  really  prayed,  and  universality.  Such  prayers  primates  and  senates  can 
no  more  command  than  they  can  order  a  new  Cologne  Cathedral  or  another 
epic  poem."—  The  Bishop  of  Berry's  Bampton  Lectures*  lect  iv. 


218  APPENDIX. 

the  Prayer  Book  suggestions  of  forgotten  customs,  reminders  of 
famous  persons  and  events,  that  there  is  in  detecting  in  the 
masonry  of  an  old  castle  or  minster  tell-tale  stones  which  betray 
the  different  ages,  the  "sundry  times  and  divers  manners"  which 
the  fabric  represents.  Who,  for  instance,  that  has  traced  the  his- 
tory of  that  apostolic  ordinance,  "the  kiss  of  peace,"  down  through 
the  liturgical  changes  and  revolutions  of  eighteen  hundred  years, 
can  fail  to  be  interested  in  finding  in  a  single  clause  of  one  of  the 
exhortations  of  our  communion  service  that  which  corresponds  to 
the  literal  kiss  of  primitive  times,  as  well  as  to  the  petrified  symbol 
of  the  original  reality,  the  silver,  ivory,  or  wooden  "  osculatory  " 
of  the  mediaeval  Church  ?  *  So  with  "  Ash- Wednesday,"  a  single 
syllable  opens  a  whole  chapter  of  Church  history.  Again,  the 
Latin  headings  to  the  psalms  of  the  Psalter ;  with  what  an  impa- 
tient gesture  can  we  imagine  a  spruce  reviser  brushing  these  away 
as  so  much  trash  !  They  are  not  trash,  they  are  waymarks  that 
tell  of  times  when  devout  men  loved  those  catchwords,  as  we  love 

*  The  following  catena  is  curious : 

"  Salute  one  another  with  an  holy  kiss."— Rom.  xvi.  10. 

"Greet  ye  one  another  with  a  kiss  of  charity."— 1  Pet.  v.  14. 

"  And  let  the  bishop  salute  the  church,  and  say :  Let  the  peace  of  God  be  with 
you  all. 

"  And  let  the  people  answer,  And  with  thy  spirit. 

"  And  let  the  deacon  say  to  all,  Salute  one  another  with  a  holy  kiss. 

"  And  let  the  clergy  kiss  the  bishop  ;  and  of  the  laity,  the  men  the  men,  and  the 
■women  the  women,  and  let  the  children  stand  by  the  Bema."—The  Divine 
Liturgy  of  St.  Clement  (Bretts's  Translation,  corrected  by  Neale). 

"  H  At  Solemn  High  Mass,  the  deacon  kisses  the  altar  at  the  same  time  with  the 
celebrating  priest,  by  whom  he  is  saluted  with  the  kiss  of  peace,  accompanied  by 
these  words,  Pax  tecum."— Rubric  of  the  Roman  Missal. 

"  Pax  or  Paxbrbde.  A  small  plate  of  gold,  or  silver,  or  copper-gilt,  enam- 
elled, or  piece  of  carved  ivory  or  wood  overlaid  with  metal,  carried  round,  having 
been  kissed  by  the  priest,  after  the  Agnus  Dei  in  the  Mass,  to  communicate  the 
kiss  of  peace."— Pugin's  Glossary. 

St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor.  "  Item,  a  fine  Pax,  silver  and  gilt  enamelled, 
with  an  image  of  the  crucifixion,  Mary  and  John,  and  having  on  the  top  three 
crosses,  with  two  shields  hanging  on  either  side.  Item,  a  ferial  Pax,  of  plate 
of  silver  gilt,  with  the  image  of  the  Blessed  Virgin."— Dugdale's  Monasiicon 
quoted  in  above  Glossary. 

"Ye  who  do  truly  and  earnestly  repent  you  of  your  sins,  and  are  in  love  and 
charily  with  your  neighbors,  and  intend  to  lead  a  new  life.  .  .  Draw  near 
with  faith,  and  take  this  holy  sacrament  to  your  comfort."— Shorter  Exhor- 
tation in  the  Communion  Office  of  the  Prayer  Book, 


APPENDIX.  219 

the  first  lines  of  our  favorite  hymns.  A  few  of  the  headings,  such 
as  liDe  Profundis"  and  "  Miserere,"  still  possess  such  associations 
for  ourselves.  There  was  a  time  when  very  many  more  of  them 
meant  to  men  now  dead  and  gone  as  much  as  "  Rock  of  Ages," 
or  "  Sun  of  my  Soul,"  or  "  Lead,  kindly  Light,"  can  mean  to  you 
or  me.* 

Then,  too,  the  monuments  of  specially  revered  heroes  of  the 
faith  that  dot  the  paths  of  the  Common  Prayer,  how  precious  they 
are  !  We  like  to  think  of  Ambrose  as  speaking  to  us  in  the  lofty 
sentences  of  the  Te  Deum.  It  is  pleasant  to  associate  Chrysostom 
with  the  prayer  that  bears  his  name,  and  to  know  that  he  who 
swayed  the  city's  multitude  still  prized  the  Master's  promise  to  the 
''two  or  three  gathered  together"  in  his  name.  So  also,  in  our 
American  Book,  Jeremy  Taylor,  the  modern  Chrysostom,  meets 
us  in  the  Office  for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  in  that  solemn 
prayer  addressed  to  Him  "  whose  days  are  without  end,  and  whose 
mercies  cannot  be  numbered."  All  these  things  help  to  make 
the  Prayer  Book  the  large-hearted,  wide-minded  book  we  all  of  us 
feel  it  to  be,  so  like  a  friend  whom  we  revere  because  he  is  kindly 
in  his  tone,  generous  in  his  judgments,  quick  to  understand  us  at 
every  point. 

So  much  for  the  past  of  the  Prayer  Book.  We  have  touched  it 
in  no  image-breaking  mood,  but  with  reverence.  "  One  genera- 
tion passeth  away,  another  generation  cometh,"  and  it  has  been 
the  peculiar  felicity  of  this  book  to  stand 

A  link  among  the  days,  to  knit 
The  generations  each  to  each. 

We  pass  on  to  consider  the  present  usefulness  of  the  Prayer 

*  A  friend  who  heard  the  sermon  preached  has  kindly  sent  me  the  following 
apt  illustrations.  They  do  not,  indeed,  come  from  history  technically  so-called, 
hut  they  report  the  mind  of  one  to  whose  eye  the  whole  life  of  the  Middle  Ages 
was  as  an  open  book. 

"There  was  now  a  pause,  of  which  the  abbot  availed  himself  by  commanding 
the  brotherhood  to  raise  the  solemn  chant,  De  'profundis  dama/oi"—The 
Monastery,  chap,  xxxvii. 

" '  To  be  a  guest  in  the  house  where  I  should  command  ? '  said  the  Templar  ; 
•Never!  Chaplains,  raise  the  psalm,  Quare  fremuerunt  Gentes?  Knights, 
squires,  and  followers  of  the  Holy  Temple,  prepare  to  follow  the  banner  of 
Beau-want! '  "—Ivanhoe^  chap.  xliv, 


220  APPENDIX. 

Book  and  the  possibility  of  extending  that  usefulness  in  the  future. 
And  now  I  shall  speak  wholly  as  an  American  to  Americans,  not 
because  the  destinies  of  the  Prayer  Book  in  the  New  World  are  the 
more  important,  though  such  may  in  the  end  turn  out  to  be  the 
fact,  but  simply  because  we  are  at  home  here  and  know  our  own 
wants  and  wishes,  our  own  liabilities  and  opportunities,  far  better 
than  we  can  possibly  know  those  of  other  people.  As  a  Church 
we  have  always  tied  ourselves  too  slavishly  to  English  precedent. 
Our  vine  is  greatly  in  danger  of  continuing  merely  a  potted  ivy, 
an  indoor  exotic.  The  past  of  the  Common  Prayer  we  cannot 
disconnect  from  England,  but  its  present  and  its  future  belong  in 
part  at  least  to  us,  and  it  is  in  this  light  that  we  are  bound  as 
American  Churchmen  to  study  them.  Let  us  agree,  then,  that  the 
usefulness  of  the  book  here  and  now  lies  largely  in  the  moulding 
and  formative  influence  which  it  is  quietly  exerting,  not  only  on 
the  religion  of  those  who  use  it,  but  also  largely  on  the  religion  of 
the  far  greater  number  who  publicly  use  it  not.  It  has  interested 
me,  as  it  would  interest  almost  anyone,  to  learn  how  many  prayer 
books  our  booksellers  supply  to  Christian  people  who  are  not 
Churchmen.  Evidently  the  book  is  in  use  as  a  private  manual 
with  thousands,  who  own  no  open  allegiance  to  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church.  They  keep  it  on  the  devotional  shelf  midway  be- 
tween Thomas  si  Kempis  and  the  Pilgrim's  Progress,  finding  it  a 
sort  of  interpreter  of  the  one  to  the  other,  and  possessed  of  a 
certain  flavor  differencing  it  from  both.  This  is  a  happy  augury 
for  the  future.  Much  latent  heat  is  generating  which  shall  yet 
warm  up  the  dullness  of  the  land.  The  seed-grain  of  the  Com- 
mon Prayer  will  not  lie  unproductive  in  those  forgotten  furrows. 
The  fitness  of  such  a  system  of  worship  as  this  to  counteract  some 
of  the  flagrant  evils  of  our  popular  religion  can  scarcely  fail  to 
commend  it  to  the  minds  of  those  who  thus  unobserved  and,  "  as 
it  were  in  secret,"  read  and  ponder.  Much  of  our  American 
piety,  fervid  as  it  is,  shows  confessedly  a  feverish,  intermittent 
character  which  needs  just  such  a  tonic  as  the  Prayer  Book  pro- 
vides in  what  Keble  happily  called  its  "sober  standard  of  feeling 
in  matters  of  practical  religion." 

Then,  too,  there  is  the  constantly  increasing  interest  which  it  is 
such  a  pleasure  to  observe  among  Christians  of  all  names  in  the 


APPENDIX.  221 

order  of  the  ritual  year,  in  Christmas  and  Easter,  Lent  and  Good- 
Friday— who  can  tell  how  much  of  this  may  not  be  due  to  the 
leavening  influence  of  the  Prayer  Book,  over  and  above  what  is 
effected  by  the  public  services  of  the  Church?  "I  wonder," 
said  a  famous  revivalist  to  a  friend,  a  clergyman  of  our  Church, 
"I  wonder  if  you  Episcopalians  know  what  a  good  thing  you 
have  in  that  year  of  yours.     Why  don't  you  use  it  more  ?  " 

And  true  enough,  why  do  we  not  ?  That  we  might  learn  to  do 
so  was  a  wish  very  near  to  the  heart  of  that  holy  and  true  man 
who,  if  anyone,  deserves  the  title  of  the  saint  among  our  priests, 
the  late  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  the  man  who  twenty-five  years  ago  headed 
the  not  wholly  abortive  movement  known  as  the  "Memorial."* 
One  fruit  of  that  movement  is  perhaps  to  be  seen  in  the  earnest 
desire  now  prevalent  throughout  the  Church  to  see  the  scope  of 
the  Prayer  Book's  influence  enlarged.  In  General  Conventions 
and  Church  Congresses  nowadays  no  topic  excites  greater  inter- 
est than  the  question  how  better  to  adapt  the  serviees  of  the  Church 
to  the  present  needs  and  special  conditions  of  all  classes  of  the 
population.    To  be  sure,  the  apparent  impotence  of  the  govern- 

*  So  many  good  things  are  washed  oat  of  men's  memory  by  the  lapse  of  even 
a  quarter  of  a  century  that  possibly  some  even  of  those  who  knew  all  about 
the  "  Memorial "  in  1852  may  be  willing  to  be  reminded  what  its  scope  and 
purpose  were. 

The  petition  was  addressed  to  the  bishops  "  in  council,"  and  prayed  for  the 
appointment  of  a  commission  to  report  upon  the  practicability  of  making  this 
Church  a  central  bond  of  union  among  the  Christian  people  of  America,  by 
providing  for  as  much  freedom  in  opinion,  discipline,  and  worship  as  might  be 
held  to  be  compatible  with  the  essential  faith  and  order  of  the  Gospel. 

The  desired  commission  was  appointed,  Bishops  Otey,  Doane,  A.  Potter, 
Burgess,  and  Williams  being  the  members  of  it.  Their  Report,  subsequently 
edited  in  book  form  by  Bishop  Potter,  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  docnments 
of  American  Church  history.  The  following  extract  from  Bishop  Burgess' 
portion  of  the  Report  will  be  read  with  interest  by  all  who  ever  learned  to 
revere  that  theologian  for  the  largeness  of  his  learning,  the  calmness  of  his 
judgment,  and  the  goodness  of  his  heart.  He  has  been  speaking  of  liturgi- 
cal changes  as  contemplated  and  allowed  for  by  the  framers  of  our  ecclesias- 
tical system.    Then  he  says  ■ 

"  There  would  seem  to  be  five  contingencies  in  which  the  changes,  thus 
made  possible  and  thus  permitted,  become  also  wise  and  salutary. 

"  The  first  is  simply  when  it  is  evident  that  in  any  respect  the  liturgy  or  its 
application  may  be  rendered  more  perfect.  To  hazard  for  this  result  the  safety 
or  unity  of  the  Church  may  be  inexcusable,  and  the  utmost  certainty  may  be 


222  APPENDIX. 

ing  body  to  find  or  furnish  any  lawful  way  of  relief  is  a  little 
discouraging,  but  it  is  something  to  see  an  almost  universal  assent 
given  in  terms,  to  the  proposition  that  relief  ought  to  be  had. 
What  we  have  to  fear  is  that  during  the  long  delay  which  puts  off 
the  only  proper  and  regular  method  of  giving  more  elasticity  to 
the  services,  there  may  spring  up  a  generation  of  Churchmen 
from  whose  minds  the  idea  of  obligation  to  law  in  matters  of 
ritual  observance  will  have  faded  out  altogether. 

There  is  a  conservatism  so  conservative  that  it  will  stand  by  and 
see  a  building  tumble  down  rather  than  lay  a  sacrilegious  hand  on 
a  single  stone,  will  see  dam  and  mill  and  village  all  swept  away 
sooner  than  lift  the  flash-boards  that  keep  the  superabundant  water 
from  coming  safely  down.  It  is  among  the  things  possible,  that 
for  lack  of  readjustment  and  timely  adaptation  of  the  laws  regu- 
lating worship,  just  such  a  fate  may  befall  our  whole  liturgical 
fabric. 

The  plausible  theory  of  "the  rubric  of  common  sense,"  about 
which  we  have  heard  so  much,  a  theory  good  within  limitations, 
is  threatening,  by  the  wholesale  application  it  receives,  presently 

demanded  before  a  change  of  this  kind  shall  be  practically  ventured.  But 
should  it  be  once  established,  beyond  the  smallest  doubt,  that  any  addition  or 
alteration  would  increase  the  excellence  or  the  excellent  influence  of  the 
liturgy  in  any  degree  sufficient  to  compensate  or  more  than  compensate  for  the 
inconveniences  incident  to  all  change,  it  seems  as  difficult  to  say  that  it  should 
not  be  adopted  by  the  Church,  as  to  excuse  any  Christian  from  adding  to  his 
virtues  or  his  usefulness. 

"  The  other  '  contingencies '  recognized  are  briefly  these : 

"  (2)  When  in  process  of  time  words  or  regulations  have  become  obsolete 
or  unsuitable. 

"  (3)  When  civil  or  social  changes  require  ecclesiastical  changes. 

"  (4)  When  the  earnest  desire  of  any  respectable  number  of  the  members  of 
the  Church,  or  of  persons  who  are  without  its  communion,  is  urged  in  behalf 
of  some  not  wholly  unreasonable  proposal  of  alteration. 

"  (5)  When  error  or  superstition  has  been  introduced  ;  when  that  which  was 
at  first  good  and  healthful  has  been  perverted  to  the  nourishment  of  falsehood 
or  wickedness  ;  or  when  that  which  was  always  evil  has  found  utterance,  and 
is  now  revealed  in  its  true  character." 

The  Memorial  failed  for  the  reason  that  the  promoters  of  it  had  not  a  clearly 
defined  notion  in  their  own  minds  of  what  they  wanted— the  secret  of  many 
failures.  Out  of  its  ashes  there  may  yet  rise,  however,  "  some  better  thing  M 
that  God  has  kept  in  store. 


APPENDIX.  223 

to  annul  all  other  rubrics  whatsoever.  When,  by  this  process, 
uniformity  and  even  similarity  shall  have  been  utterly  abolished, 
when  it  shall  have  become  impossible  for  one  to  know  beforehand 
of  a  Sunday  whether  he  is  going  to  mass,  or  to  meeting,  or  to 
church,  the  inquiry  will  be  in  order,  What  has  conservatism  of 
this  sort  really  conserved  ? 

"  The  personal  liberty  of  the  officiating  clergyman,"  I  fear  will 
be  the  only  answer  ;  certainly  not,  "  The  liberty  of  the  worship- 
ping congregation."  The  straight  and  only  honest  way  out  of  our 
embarrassment  will,  some  day  or  other,  be  found,  I  dare  not  believe 
very  soon,  in  a  careful,  loving,  fair-minded  revision  of  the  formu- 
laries ;  a  revision  undertaken,  not  for  the  purpose  of  giving  victory 
to  one  theological  party  rather  than  to  another,  or  of  changing  in 
any  degree  the  doctrinal  teaching  of  the  Church,  but  solely  and 
wholly  with  a  view  to  enriching,  amplifying,  and  making  more 
available  the  liturgical  treasures  of  the  book. 

"One  generation  passeth  away,  another  generation  cometh." 
As  we  have  seen  in  these  words  an  argument  in  favor  of  not  break- 
ing with  the  past,  so  let  them  also  speak  to  us  of  our  plain  duty  to 
the  present.  True,  the  great  needs  are,  as  I  have  said,  common 
alike  to  all  the  generations,  to  those  that  pass  and  those  that  come; 
but  the  lesser  needs  are  variable,  and  unless  we  are  prepared  to  take 
the  ground  that  because  "  lesser"  they  maybe  disregarded  alto- 
gether, we  are  bound,  with  the  changed  times,  to  provide  for 
the  new  wants  new  satisfactions .  Take,  simply  by  way  of  illustra- 
tion, the  need  we  stand  in  of  an  appropriate  form  of  third  service 
for  use  on  Sundays  in  city  churches,  when  Morning  and  Evening 
Prayer  have  been  already  said  according  to  the  prescribed  order. 

Why  have  we  no  such  service  ? 

Simply  because  no  such  need  existed  in  our  American  cities 
when  the  Prayer  Book,  as  we  have  it  now,  was  taking  shape,  at 
the  close  of  the  last  century.  Just  as  no  form  for  the  administra- 
tion of  Adult  Baptism  was  put  into  Queen  Elizabeth's  Prayer 
Book,  simply  because  the  usage  of  Infant  Baptism  was  universal 
in  that  day,  and  there  were  no  unbaptized  adults  ;  but  such  service 
was  inserted  at  the  Restoration  to  meet  the  need  that  had  sprung 
up  under  the  Puritan  regime  ;  so  was  it  unnecessary  in  Bishop 
White's  day  to  provide  for  a  form  of  service  which  has  only  be- 


224  Appendix. 

come  practicable  and  desirable  since  modern  discovery  has  en- 
abled us  to  make  the  public  streets  almost  as  safe  at  night  as  in 
the  daytime,  and  church-going  as  easy  by  gaslight  as  by  sunlight. 

Now  it  is  perfectly  possible,  of  course,  under  the  present  order 
of  things,  and  with  no  change  in  rubric  or  canon  law,  for  any 
cfergyman  to  provide  an  additional  service,  to  provide  it  in  the 
form  of  a  mosaic  made  up  of  bits  of  the  liturgy  wrenched  out 
of  their  proper  places,  and  so  irregularly  put  together  that  no 
stranger  among  the  worshippers  can  possibly,  with  the  book  in 
hand,  thread  his  way  among  its  intricacies. 

But  when  we  consider  how  many  exquisite  gems  of  devotional 
speech  there  are  still  left  outside  the  covers  of  the  Prayer  Book  ; 
when  we  consider  how  delightful  it  would  be  to  have  back  again 
the  Magnificat,  and  the  Nunc  Dimittis,  and  some  of  the  sweet 
versicles  of  the  Evensong  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  when  we 
consider  the  lamentable  mistake  already  made  in  our  existing 
formularies  of  introducing  into  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer 
identically  the  same  opening  sentences,  the  same  General  Exhor- 
tation, the  same  General  Confession,  the  same  Declaration  of 
Absolution,  the  same  Prayer  for  the  President,  and  the  same 
General  Thanksgiving — is  it  not  evident  that  an  additional,  or,  if 
you  please,  an  alternative  service,  composed  of  material  not  else- 
where employed,  would  be  for  the  worshippers  a  very  great  gain? 
The  repetition  which  wearies  is  only  the  repetition  which  we  feel 
need  not  have  been.  We  never  tire  of  the  Collect  for  Peace  any 
more  than  we  tire  of  the  sunset.  It  is  in  its  place,  and  we  always 
welcome  it.  In  a  perfect  liturgy  no  form  of  words,  except  the 
Creed,  the  Doxology,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer,  would  at  any  time 
reappear,  but  as  in  arabesque  work  every  square  inch  of  space  dif- 
fers from  every  other  square,  so  each  clause  and  sentence  of  the 
manual  of  worship  would  have  a  distinctive  beauty  of  its  own,  to 
be  looked  for  precisely  there  and  nowhere  else. 

This  is  but  one  illustration  of  what  may  be  called  a  possible 
enrichment  of  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Impoverishment 
under  the  name  of  revision  may  very  justly  be  deprecated,  but  who 
shall  find  any  just  fault  with  an  enrichment  that  is  really  such? 

We  must  remember  that  the  men  who  gave  us  what  we  now 
have  were,  in  their  day  and  generation,  the  innovators,  advocates 


APPENDIX.  225 

of  what  the  more  timid  spirits  accounted  dangerous  change.  We 
cannot,  I  think,  sufficiently  admire  the  courageous  foresight  of 
those  Reformers  who,  at  a  time  when  public  worship  was  mainly 
associated  in  men's  minds  with  what  went  on  among  a  number  of 
ecclesiastics  gathered  together  at  one  end  of  a  church,  dared  to 
plant  themselves  firmly  on  the  principle  of  "  common  "  prayer, 
and  to  say,  Henceforth  the  worship  of  the  National  Church  shall 
be  the  worship  not  of  priests  alone,  but  of  priests  and  people  too. 
What  a  bold  act  it  was  !  The  printing-press,  remember,  although 
it  had  given  the  impulse  to  the  Reformation,  was  far  from  being 
at  that  time  the  omnipresent  thing  it  is  now  ;  books  were  scarce; 
popular  education,  as  we  understand  it,  was  unknown  ;  there 
were  no  means  of  supplying  service-books  to  the  poorer  classes 
(no  Prayer  Book  Societies,  like  this  of  yours),  nor  could  the  books 
have  been  used  had  they  been  furnished.  And  yet  in  the  face  of 
these  seemingly  insuperable  obstacles,  the  leaders  of  religious 
thought  in  the  England  of  that  day  had  the  sagacity  to  plan  a 
system  of  worship  which  should  involve  participation  by  the 
people  in  all  the  acts  of  divine  service,  including  the  administra- 
tion of  the  sacraments. 

Here  was  genuine  statesmanship  applied  to  the  administration 
of  religion.  Those  men  discerned  wisely  the  signs  of  their  own 
times.  They  saw  what  the  right  principle  was,  they  foresaw 
what  the  art  of  printing  was  destined  in  time  to  accomplish,  and 
they  did  a  piece  of  work  which  has  bravely  stood  the  wear  and 
tear  of  full  three  hundred  years. 

No  Churchman  questions  the  wisdom  of  their  innovations  now. 
Is  it  hopeless  to  expect  a  like  quickness  of  discernment  in  the 
leaders  of  to-day  ?  Surely  they  have  eyes  to  see  that  a  new  world 
has  been  born,  and  that  a  thousand  unexampled  demands  are 
pressing  us  on  every  side.  If  the  Prayer  Book  is  not  enriched 
with  a  view  to  meeting  those  demands,  it  is  not  for  lack  of  ma- 
terials. A  Saturday  reviewer  has  tried  to  fasten  on  the  Church  of 
England  the  stigma  of  being  the  Church  which  for  the  space  of 
two  centuries  has  not  been  able  to  evolve  a  fresh  prayer. 

If  the  reproach  were  just  it  would  be  stinging  indeed  ;  but  it 
is  most  cruelly  unjust.  In  the  devotional  literature  of  the  Angli- 
canism of  the  last  fifty  years,  t©  go  no  further  back,  there  may  be 


226  APPENDIX. 

found  prayers  fully  equal  in  compass  of  thought  and  depth  of 
feeling  to  any  of  those  that  are  already  in  public  use.  Not  to 
single  out  too  many  instances,  it  may  suffice  to  mention  the 
prayers  appended  to  the  book  of  Ancient  Collects  edited  a  few 
years  since  by  a  distinguished  Oxford  scholar.  The  clergy  are 
acquainted  with  them,  and  know  how  beautiful  they  are.  Why 
should  not  the  whole  Church  enjoy  the  happiness  of  using  them?  * 
Why  is  there  not  the  same  propriety  in  our  garnering  the  devo- 
votional  harvest  of  the  three  hundred  years  last  past  that  there 
was  in  the  Reformers  garnering  the  harvest  of  five  times  three 
hundred  years  ? 

"  One  generation  passeth  away,  another  generation  cometh." 
I  have  spoken  of  the  present  and  the  past,  what  now  of  the 

*  Ancient  Collects  and  Other  Prayers  selected  for  Devotional  Use  from 
Various  Rituals.  By  William  Bright,  M.  A.  J.  H.  &  Jas.  Parker,  Oxford  and 
London. 

From. the  Appendix  I  take  the  following  illustrations  of  the  statement  ven- 
tured above : 

"For  Guidance— O  God,  by  whom  the  meek  are  guided  in  judgment,  and 
light  riseth  up  in  darkness  for  the  godly  ;  grant  us  in  all  our  doubts  and  un- 
certainties the  grace  to  ask  what  thou  wouldest  have  us  to  do  ;  that  the  Spirit 
of  wisdom  may  save  us  from  all  false  choices,  and  that  in  thy  light  we  may  see 
light,  and  in  thy  straight  path  may  not  stumble :  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. 

"  For  those  who  live  in  sin.— Have  mercy,  O  compassionate  Father,  on  all  who 
are  hardened  through  the  deceitfulness  of  sin  ;  vouchsafe  them  grace  to  come 
to  themselves,  the  will  and  power  to  return  to  thee,  and  the  loving  welcome  of 
thy  forgiveness  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

"  For  all  who  do  the  work  of  the  Church.— O  Lord,  without  whom  our  labor 
is  but  lost,  and  with  whom  thy  little  ones  go  forth  as  the  mighty,  be  present 
to  all  works  in  thy  Church  which  are  undertaken  according  to  thy  will,  and 
grant  to  thy  laborers  a  pure  intention,  patient  faith,  sufficient  success  upon 
earth,  and  the  bliss  of  serving  thee  in  heaven,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

**  For  grace  to  speak  the  Truth  in  love.—O  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who 
earnest  not  to  strive  nor  cry,  but  to  let  thy  words  fall  as  the  drops  that  water 
the  earth :  grant  all  who  contend  for  the  faith  once  delivered,  never  to  injure 
it  by  clamor  and  impatience,  but  speaking  thy  precious  truth  in  love,  so  to  pre- 
sent it  that  it  may  be  loved,  and  that  men  may  see  in  it  thy  goodness  and  thy 
beauty  :  who  livestand  reignest  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  one  God, 
world  without  end." 

Both  as  regards  devotional  flavor  and  literary  beauty  these  prayers  will,  I  feel 
sure,  be  judged  worthy,  by  such  as  will  read  them  more  than  once,  to  stand  by 
the  side  certainly  of  many  of  the  collects  already  in  the  Prayer  Book. 


appendix.  227 

future  ?  We  know  that  all  things  come  to  an  end.  What  destiny- 
awaits  the  book  to  which  our  evening  thoughts  have  been  given  ? 
That  is  a  path  not  open  to  our  tread.  The  cloudy  curtain  screens 
the  threshold  of  it.  Still  we  may  listen  and  imagine  that  we  hear 
sounds.  What  if  such  a  voice  as  this  were  to  come  to  us  from 
the  distance  of  a  hundred  years  hence — a  voice  tinged  with  sad- 
ness, and  carrying  just  the  least  suggestion  of  reproach  ?  "  Our 
fathers,"  the  voice  says,  "in  the  last  quarter  of  the  last  century, 
forfeited  a  golden  opportunity.  It  was  a  time  of  reconstruction 
in  the  State,  social  life  was  taking  on  the  form  it  was  destined 
long  to  retain,  a  great  war  had  come  to  an  end  and  its  results  were 
being  registered,  all  things  were  fluent.  Moreover,  there  hap- 
pened, just  then,  to  be  an  almost  unparalleled  lull  in  the  strife  of 
religious  parties  ;  men  were  more  disposed  than  usual  to  agree  ; 
the  interest  in  liturgical  research  was  at  its  greatest,  and  scholars 
knew  and  cared  more  than  they  have  ever  done  since  about  the 
history  and  the  structure  of  forms  of  prayer.  Nevertheless, 
timid  councils  prevailed  ;  nothing  was  done  with  a  view  to  better 
adapting  the  system  to  the  needs  of  society,  and  the  hope  that  the 
Church  might  cease  to  wear  the  dimensions  of  a  sect,  and  might 
become  the  chosen  home  of  a  great  people,  died  unrealized.  We 
struggle  on,  a  half-hearted  company,  and  try  to  live  upon  the 
high  traditions,  the  sweet  memories  of  our  past." 

God  forbid,  my  friends,  that  the  dismal  prophecy  come  true  ! 
We  will  not  believe  it.  But  what,  you  ask,  is  the  pathway  to  any 
such  betterment  as  I  have  ventured  roughly  to  sketch  to-night  ? 
I  will  not  attempt  to  map  it,  but  I  feel  very  confident  which  way 
it  does  not  run.  I  am  sure  it  does  not  run  through  the  region  of 
disaffection,  complaint,  threatening,  restlessness,  petulance,  or 
secession.  Mere  fretfulness  never  carries  its  points.  No,  the 
true  way  to  better  things  is  always  to  begin  by  holding  on  man- 
fully to  that  which  we  already  are  convinced  is  good.  The  best 
restorers  of  old  fabrics  are  those  who  work  with  affectionate 
loyalty  as  nearly  as  possible  on  the  lines  of  the  .first  builders, 
averse  to  any  change  which  is  made  merely  for  change's  sake,  not 
so  anxious  to  modernize  as  to  restore,  and  yet  always  awake  to 
the  fact  that  what  they  have  been  set  to  do  is  to  make  the  building 
once  more  what  it  was  first  meant  to  be,  a  practicable  shelter. 


THE  OUTCOME  OF  REVISION— A  SERMON .» 

"...  We  are  the  servants  of  the  God  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  build  the 
house  that  was  builded  these  many  years  ago."— Ezra  v.  11. 

This  was  the  reply  of  the  rebuilders  of  Jerusalem  to  certain 
critical  lookers-on  who  would  fain  be  informed  by  what  authority 
a  picturesque  ruin  was  disturbed.  It  is  a  serviceable  answer  still. 
There  are  always  those  to  whom  the  activity  of  the  Christian 
Church  is  a  standing  puzzle.  Religion,  or  at  any  rate  revealed 
religion,  having,  as  they  think,  received  its  death-blow,  the  un- 
mistakable signs  of  life  which,  from  time  to  time,  it  manifests 
take  on  almost  the  character  of  a  personal  affront.  They  resent 
them.  What  right  have  these  Christians  to  be  showing  such  a 
lively  interest  in  their  vanquished  faith?  they  ask.  What  busi- 
ness have  they  to  be  holding  councils,  and  laying  plans,  and  act- 
ing as  if  they  had  some  high  and  splendid  effort  in  hand  ?  Are 
they  such  fools  as  to  imagine  that  they  can  reconstruct  what  has 
so  evidently  tumbled  into  ruin  ? 

But  the  wonderful  thing  about  this  great  building  enterprise 
known  as  the  kingdom  of  God  is  that,  from  the  day  when 
the  corner-stone  was  laid  to  this  day,  the  workmen  on  the  walls 
have  never  seemed  to  know  what  it  meant  to  be  discouraged.  In 
the  face  of  taunt  and  rebuff  and  disappointment,  they  have  kept 
on  saying  to  their  critics  :  "  We  are  the  servants  of  the  God  of 
heaven  and  earth,  and  build  the  house  that  was  builded  these  many 
years  ago."  This  is  just  what  the  Church  Council  which  has 
been  holding  its  sessions  in  Baltimore  during  the  last  three  weeks 
has  to  say  for  itself.  Its  task  has  been  an  architectural  task.  Ac- 
cording to  its  lights,  it  has  been  at  work  upon  the  walls  of  the 
city  of  God.  Let  me  give  you,  as  my  habit  has  been  under  similar 
circumstances  in  the  past,  some  account  of  its  doings. 

*  Preached  in  Grace  Church,  N.  Y.,  on  the  Twentieth  Sunday  after  Trinity, 
that  being  the  Sunday  next  following  the  adjournment  of  the  General  Con- 
vention of  1892. 


APPENDIX.  229 

The  General  Convention  of  1892  will  be  memorable  in  our 
ecclesiastical  annals  for  having  closed  one  question  of  grave  mo- 
ment only  to  open  a  kindred  one  of  still  larger  reach.  The 
question  closed  was  the  question  of  liturgical  revision  ;  the  ques- 
tion opened  is  the  question  of  constitutional  revision.  I  should 
like  to  speak  to  you  this  morning  retrospectively  of  the  one,  and 
prospectively  of  the  other. 

It  is  now  about  twenty  years  since  the  question  of  modifying, 
to  some  extent,  the  methods  of  our  public  worship  began  to  be 
mooted. 

While  it  was  acknowledged  that  the  need  was  greater  in  the 
mother  country  than  here,  many  of  the  repetitions  and  superflui- 
ties of  the  English  Church  service  having  been  set  aside  by  Bishop 
White  and  his  compeers  in  the  American  Revision  of  1789,  it  was 
felt  that  further  improvements  were  still  possible,  and  that  the 
time  had  fully  come  for  making  them.  Since  the  beginning  of 
the  so-called  "tractarian  movement"  in  the  Church  of  England  a 
great  deal  of  valuable  liturgical  material  had  been  accumulating, 
and  it  was  discerned  that  if  ever  the  fruits  of  the  scholarship  of 
such  men  c3  Palmer  and  Neale  and  Maskell  and  Bright  were  to  be 
garnered  the  harvest-day  had  arrived.  To  the  question  often 
asked  why  it  would  not  have  been  wiser  to  wait  until  the  Church 
of  England  had  led  the  way  and  set  the  pattern,  the  answer  is  that 
the  hands  of  the  Church  of  England  were  tied,  as  they  have  been 
tied  these  many  years  past,  and  as  they  may  continue  to  be  tied, 
for  aught  we  know  to  the  contrary,  for  many  years  to  come.  The 
Church  of  England  cannot  touch  her  own  Prayer  Book,  whether 
to  mend  or  to  mar  it,  except  with  the  consent  of  that  very  mixed 
body,  the  House  of  Commons — a  consent  she  is  naturally  and 
properly  most  loth  to  ask.  Immersed  in  a  veritable  ocean  of  accu- 
mulated liturgical  material,  she  is  as  helpless  as  Tantalus  to 
moisten  her  lips  with  so  much  as  a  single  drop.  It  was  seen  that 
this  fact  laid  upon  us  American  Churchmen  a  responsibility  as 
urgent  as  it  was  unique,  viz.,  the  responsibility  of  doing  what  we 
could  to  meet  the  devotional  needs  of  present-day  Christendom, 
not  only  for  our  own  advantage,  but  with  a  view  to  being  ulti- 
mately of  service  to  our  Anglican  brethren  across  the  sea.    An 


230  APPENDIX. 

experiment  of  the  greatest  interest,  which  for  them  was  a  sheer 
impossibility,  it  lay  open  to  us  to  try.  After  various  abortive 
attempts  had  come  to  nought,  a  beginning  was  at  length  made  in 
the  General  Convention  of  1880,  a  joint  committee  of  bishops  and 
deputies  being  then  appointed  to  consider  whether,  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  this  Church  was  soon  to  enter  upon  the  second  century 
of  its  organized  existence  in  America,  the  changed  condition  of  the 
national  life  did  not  demand  certain  alterations  in  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  in  the  direction  of  liturgical  enrichment  and  in- 
creased flexibility  of  use. 

Few  were  of  the  opinion  at  the  time  that  anything  definite 
would  come  of  the  deliberations  of  this  committee,  and  the  fact, 
never  before  publicly  stated  till  this  moment,  that  of  the  deputies 
appointed  to  serve  upon  it  the  greater  number  were  men  who  had 
not  voted  in  favor  of  the  measure,  makes  it  all  the  more  interesting 
to  remember  that  the  report,  when  brought  in  at  Philadelphia  three 
years  later,  was  signed  by  every  member  of  the  committee  then 
living.  This  Philadelphia  report  recommended  very  numerous 
changes  in  the  direction  both  of  "  flexibility  "  and  "  enrichment," 
and  by  far  the  greater  number  of  the  recommendations  met  with 
the  approval  of  the  convention.  There  is,  however,  a  very  wise 
provision  of  our  Church  constitution,  a  provision  strikingly  char- 
acteristic of  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind,  which,  by  way  of  making 
allowance  for  second  thought,  requires  that  liturgical  changes, 
before  [being  finally  adopted,  shall  run  the  gauntlet  of  two  suc- 
cessive conventions.  Much  was  accepted  at  Philadelphia  ;  it 
remained  to  be  seen  how  much  would  pass  the  ordeal  of  its  second 
reading  at  Chicago  three  years  later. 

Into  the  war  of  words  waged  over  the  subject  during  that  inter- 
val period,  I  have  neither  the  time  nor  the  disposition  to  carry 
you.  The  three  years,  while  they  gave  opportunity  for  reaction, 
also  allowed  space  for  counter-reaction  ;  so  that  when,  at  last,  the 
question  came  once  more  before  the  Church  in  council  assem- 
bled whether  the  work  done  at  Philadelphia  should  be  approved 
or  disallowed,  men's  minds  had  sufficiently  recovered  balance  to 
permit  of  their  exercising  discrimination.  Accordingly  in  1886 
some  things  were  rejected,  some  adopted,  and  some  remanded  for 
further  revision.    But  why  should  I  confuse  your  minds  by  an 


APPENDIX.  231 

attempt  to  tell  in  detail  the  whole  story  of  the  movement  ?  No 
matter  how  clear  I  might  make  the  narrative  it  would  be  difficult 
to  follow  it,  for  in  the  progress  of  the  work  there  have  been  sur- 
prises many,  successes  and  reverses  not  a  few  ;  enough  that,  at 
last,  the  long  labor  is  ended  and  in  this  Columbian  year  the  sHip 
comes  into  port. 

As  to  results,  their  number  and  their  quality,  opinions  will  of 
course  differ.  In  connection  with  this,  as  with  all  similar  under- 
takings, there  are  many  to  cry  :  "  Who  will  show  us  any  good  ?  " 
Certainly  nothing  that  could  be  called  a  radical  change  has  been 
brought  to  pass  ;  but  then,  is  there  any  reason  to  suppose  that 
radical  changes  were  either  sought  or  desired  by  those  who  have 
been  active  in  the  movement  ?  Certain  distinct  and  indisputable 
gains  may  be  counted  up.  The  recovery  of  the  great  Gospel 
hymns  come  under  this  head .  There  are  some  of  us  who  think 
that  only  to  have  succeeded  in  replacing  the  Magnificat  and  the 
Nunc  Dimittis  in  the  Evening  Prayer  is  of  itself  a  sufficient  reward 
for  years  of  effort,  but  this  is  only  a  small  part  of  our  harvest. 
The  new  opening  sentences  for  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer, 
which  have  so  "  adorned  and  beautified  "  our  observance  of  great 
festivals,  the  remodelling  of  the  Ash-Wednesday  service,  the  re- 
covered Feast  of  the  Transfiguration,  the  various  provisions  for 
adapting  the  Church's  worship  to  the  exigencies  of  times  and  sea- 
sons, the  increased  freedom  in  the  use  of  the  Psalter,  all  these  go 
to  make  up  an  aggregate  of  betterment  the  measure  of  which  will 
be  more  fully  understood  as  time  goes  on.  "  Parturiunt  montes  " 
is  an  easy  verdict  to  pronounce  ;  it  remains  to  be  proved  whether 
in  this  case  it  is  a  just  one  to  render.  If  there  are  some  (as  doubt- 
less some  there  are)  who  hold  that  the  sample  book  presented  at 
Philadelphia  in  1883,  faulty  as  it  confessedly  was,  is  still,  all 
things  considered,  a  better  book  for  American  needs  than  the 
standard  finally  adopted  at  Baltimore,  week  before  last,  if  there 
are  some  who  deeply  regret  the  failure  to  include  among  our 
special  offices  one  for  the  burial  of  little  children,  and  among  our 
prayers  intercessions  for  the  country,  for  the  families  of  the  land, 
for  schools  of  good  learning,  for  employers  and  those  whom  they 
employ,  together  with  many  other  forms  of  supplication  gathered 
from  the  wide  field  of  English  liturgiology— if,  I  say,  there  arc 


232  APPENDIX. 

some  who  are  of  this  mind  they  must  comfort  themselves  with  the 
reflection  that,  after  all,  they  are  a  minority,  that  the ,  greater 
number  of  those  upon  whom  rested  the  responsibility  of  de- 
cision did  not  wish  for  these  additions,  and  that  the  things  which 
finally  found  acceptance  were  the  things  unanimously  desired. 
For,  when  we  think  of  it,  this  is  perhaps  the  very  best  feature  of 
the  whole  thing,  looked  at  in  its  length  and  breadth,  that  there  is 
no  defeated  party,  no  body  of  people  who  feel  that  they  have  a 
right  to  fret  and  sulk  because  unpalatable  changes  have  been 
forced  upon  them  by  narrow  majorities.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact, 
that  of  the  many  scores  of  alterations  effected,  it  can  be  truly  said 
that,  with  rare,  very  rare  exceptions,  they  found,  when  it  came  to 
the  decisive  vote,  what  was  practically  a  unanimous  consent. 
They  were  things  that  everybody  wanted. 

As  to  the  annoyance  and  vexation  experienced  by  worshippers 
during  the  years  the  revision  has  been  in  progress,  perhaps  the 
very  best  thing  that  can  be  done,  now  that  the  end  is  so  near  at 
hand,  will  be  to  forget  all  about  it.  In  a  few  months,  at  the 
furthest,  the  Prayer  Book,  in  its  complete  form,  will  be  available 
for  purchase  and  use,  and  the  hybrid  copies  which  have  been  so 
long  in  circulation,  to  the  scandal  of  people  of  fastidious  taste,  will 
quickly  vanish  away.  Meanwhile,  it  is  interesting  to  know  that 
all  through  this  stretch  of  years  while  the  Prayer  Book  has  been 
"  in  solution,"  as  some  have  been  fond  of  phrasing  it,  the  Episco- 
pal Church  has  exhibited  a  rate  of  growth  quite  unparalleled  in  its 
history. 

Of  course  nobody  can  say  with  certainty  what  has  caused  the  in- 
crease. But  it  is  at  least  conceivable  that  among  the  accelerating 
forces  has  been  this  very  work  of  liturgical  revision.  People  at 
large  have  been  made  aware  that  this  Church  was  honestly  en- 
deavoring to  adapt  its  system  of  worship  to  the  needs  of  our  time 
and  country  ;  and  the  mere  fact  of  their  seeing  this  to  be  the  case 
has  served  to  allay  prejudice  and  to  foster  a  spirit  of  inquiry. 
Finding  us  disposed  to  relax  something  of  our  rigidity,  they,  on 
their  part,  have  been  first  attracted,  then  conciliated,  and  finally 
completely  won. 

I  cannot  leave  this  subject  without  paying  a  personal  tribute  to 
a  prelate  but  for  whose  aid  in  the  House  of  which  he  is  a  dis- 


APPENDIX.  233 

tinguished  ornament,  liturgical  revision  would,  humanly  speak- 
ing, have  long  ago  come  to  nought.  To  the  fearlessness,  the 
patience,  the  kindly  temper,  and  the  resolute  purpose  of  William 
Croswell  Doane,  Bishop  of  Albany,  this  Church  for  these  results 
stands  deeply  and  lastingly  indebted.  When  others'  courage 
failed  them,  he  stood  firm  ;  when  friends  and  colleagues  were 
counselling  retreat,  and  under  their  breath  were  whispering 
"Fiasco  I"  and  "  Collapse  !"  his  spirit  never  faltered.  He  has 
been  true  to  a  great  purpose,  at  the  cost  of  obloquy  sometimes, 
and  to  the  detriment  even  of  old  friendships.  Separated  from 
him  by  a  dozen  shades  of  theological  opinion  and  by  as  many 
degrees  of  ecclesiastical  bias,  I  render  him  here  and  now  that 
homage  of  grateful  appreciation  which  every  Churchman  owes 
him. 

So  much  for  the  ship  that  has  dropped  anchor.  I  have  left  my 
self  but  a  few  moments  in  which  to  say  God-speed  to  the  other 
craft  which  is  even  now  sliding  down  the  ways,  ready  for  the 
great  deep.  Put  perhaps  it  is  just  as  well.  History  is  always  a 
safer  line  to  enter  upon  than  prophecy  ;  and  were  I  to  say  all 
that  is  in  my  mind  and  heart  as  to  the  possibilities  of  this  new 
venture  of  faith  on  the  Church's  part,  constitutional  revision,  I 
might  be  betrayed  into  expressions  of  hopefulness  which  would 
strike  most  of  you  as  overwrought. 

Suffice  it  to  say,  that  never  since  the  Reformation  of  Religion 
in  the  sixteenth  century  has  a  fairer  prospect  been  opened  to  the 
Church  of  our  affections  than  is  opened  to  her  to-day.  No  in- 
terpretation of  the  divine  purpose  with  respect  to  this  broad  land 
we  name  America  has  one-half  so  much  of  likelihood  as  that 
which  makes  our  country  the  predestined  building  plot  for  the 
Church  of  the  Reconciliation. 

All  signs  point  that  way.  To  us,  if  we  have  but  the  eyes  to  see 
it,  there  falls,  not  through  any  merit  of  our  own,  but  by  the  acci- 
dent, if  it  be  right  to  use  that  word,  by  the  accident  of  historical 
association,  the  opportunity  of  leadership. 

It  is  possible  for  us,  at  this  crisis  of  our  destiny,  so  to  mould  our 
organic  law  that  we  shall  be  brought  into  sympathetic  contact 
with  hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  fellow-countrymen  who  wor- 
ship the  same  God,  hold  the  same  faith,  love  the  same  Christ.    On 


234 


APPENDIX 


the  other  hand,  it  is  possible  for  us  so  to  fence  ourselves  off  from 
this  huge  family  of  our  fellow-believers  as  to  secure  for  our  lasting 
heritage  only  the  cold  privileges  of  a  proud  and  selfish  isolation. 
There  could  be  no  real  catholicity  in  such  a  choice  as  that. 

We  have  the  opportunity  of  growing  into  a  great  and  compre- 
hensive Church.  We  have  the  opportunity  of  dwindling  into  a 
self-conscious,  self-conceited,  and  unsympathetic  sect.  Which 
shall  it  be  ?  With  those  to  whom,  under  God,  the  remoulding  of 
our  organic  law  has  been  intrusted  it  largely  rests  to  say. 


APPENDIX. 


235 


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